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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank Griffin who wrote (20612)	6/12/2000 1:20:00 AM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 769670

How about my cable and local phone company? Not to mention my electric, water and gas? Microsoft is not a monopoly. It's an oligopoly. The only ones not screaming for their break-up, are the consumers who enjoy their products. Notice how the Justice Department lawyers keep using AT&T as an example of why this is happening. I guess they completely forgot AT&T was a government enforced and protected monopoly. Microsoft operates in the open and free market everyday. If their products stunk and a competitor offered better value, they would lose market share. Novell, Netscape, IBM and a slew of others simply stumbled in their execution. Now they want the government to even the playing field for another shot. Novell should have bundled an office package sooner. Netscape should have offered the Navigator free immediately when Microsoft did. IBM? The list is too long. But they have recovered in other areas very well. Bill Gates is simply a better business person who executed his strategy at the right inflection points in time. Time will dictate whether he can continue leading Microsoft on this stellar track record. Seems to me Linux is a bigger threat to Microsoft then then the Justice Department. Especially if they don't release the source code. If the Justice Department really wants to go after a monopoly which is screwing consumers. They should take on the diamond industry and all the others ones listed above. Not the most competitive, constantly changing industry in the world. Michael

To: Frank Griffin who wrote (20612)	6/12/2000 5:44:00 PM
From: nihil	Respond to of 769670

The monopolies you are speaking of are legally established. WRT law, if the state makes the state bar an agency of the state (usually the state supreme court), they can authorize a monopoly (or strictly a cartel). Otherwise, the state bar can be sued and made to compete (as in Virginia). There are many differences among the states. Arizona makes it very easy to represent your self. The USPS is exempted by a federal act in which Congress authorizes it to fix prices (subject to the Rate Commission approval). "In exchange" it is required to provide general service.