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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Drew Williams who wrote (2246)	10/5/2000 6:31:41 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 12245

Drew, Telecom's share price has dropped from a high of NZ$9 to nearer NZ$5 while the NZ$ has dropped from about US60c to US40c. That means shareholders in Telecom have taken a very big pasting. That is symbolic of what is going on here. It's ironic that just as competition in the form of CDMA is looming over Telecom, with optics and a thousand technologies reducing Telecom to a customer service company, the stupid state monopolists decide to wield their Tyrannosaurus Rex intellect, tact and care to free consumers and citizens from the evil clutches of Telecom. This is similar to the USA freeing the world's citizens from the evil clutches of $ill Gates. Or, as Ronald Reagan [or his speech writer] said, the most dreaded words are "I'm from the government. I'm here to help you". The government's myopic idea is that the twisted pair to houses is holding householders hostage to predatory pricing by Telecom. Of course there are many ways to escape the Telecom charges; use a Vodafone cellphone [or a Telecom one] as your sole phone, use internet telephony, share a phone with a neighbour, use ADSL and get rid of one phone line, use cable [in some areas], use microwave dishes or other wireless local loop systems, drive instead of phoning, or walk or use email, or browse a website instead of phoning a company. NZ is NOT any longer any kind of deregulatory model to follow. It is heading back to unionized us versus them medieval, hierarchical, tribal, collectivist ideas based on cargo-cult green-eyed envy. The first death was on a picket line when a woman was trying to stop somebody driving through by leaning against the vehicle. The driver kept their vehicle moving which pushed her over. Her head hit the ground and she subsequently died. She had no business obstructing a person going about their lawful business. She was not involved with the business the driver was trying to visit - she was a political activist who worked for Rod Donald, the leader of the Green Party. The driver was prosecuted for reckless endangerment or some such charge - he was perhaps a stroppy individual who doesn't shrink from confrontation. That's what you get when somebody tries to steal other people's property or control their lives by kidnapping, stopping them going about their lawful business etc. Try obstructing some police going about their lawful business and see how long before you get shoved out of the way, hit with a club, arrested, shot or whatever it takes to clear the way. As Clinton knows, obstruction of justice [or the law] is a dodgy business; care required. Same for illegally obstructing people's lives. <In terms of economic freedoms, New Zealand is ranked higher even than the United States in the annual survey by the Cato and Fraser Institutes.> That is not actually much of a challenge! In absolute terms, the world [including the USA] is still in the stone age in regard to freedom of individuals. We are still stuck in a tribal collectivist world, albeit civilized with some law and a touch of ethics. Mqurice