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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scrapps who wrote (21362)	6/29/2001 6:26:35 PM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 22053

You put your finger EXACTLY on the crux of the matter. Where in HELL does this faith in a pure, benevolent, omniscient, perfectly just government come from? Not this world that's for sure. So who do you ask for permission from when you make your business decisions?

To: Scrapps who wrote (21362)	6/29/2001 8:27:12 PM
From: jhild	Respond to of 22053

Now this is a curiosity: we should apply the laws properly and not destroy a company with 39,000 jobs and represents 10% of the value of the NASDAQ. Scrapps there is no linkage. One has quite nothing to do with the other. The application of the law should be quite above such considerations. As it is the law stands against predatory practices. If you are talking application of the law, as David points out Microsoft currently stands in violation. As a remedy there needs to be assurances that Microsoft will stay in line in the future. This looks like a difficult solution given their history. But jobs at Microsoft is an irrelevant issue in such a consideration. With greater competition there just might be more jobs at other companies in any event. And more innovation no doubt. And more companies with greater market caps. As to asking for permission for business decisions most people have ethical standards to guide them. Maybe dropping out of Harvard to start a software company isn't such a good thing if it means that you are skipping your classes in philosophy and ethics.

To: Scrapps who wrote (21362)	6/29/2001 11:12:19 PM
From: Bill Ulrich	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 22053

eh? If MSFT were smaller it would be okay to enforce the law? Fortunately, they're kinda large, so we can dispense with that annoying legal enforcement stuff? Help me out here, Scrapps: "I agree with the fact improper business practices have been done at MSFT, however, we still remain a country of laws. Hence...we should apply the laws properly and not destroy a company with 39,000 jobs and represents 10% of the value of the NASDAQ." I don't recall the DOJ suggesting that 39,000 should be out of work. Division by two—The Split—suggests that you might have 19,500 over -->here and 19,500 over there<--, but I don't see anybody losing their job over it. Similar math for the NASDAQ red herring.

To: Scrapps who wrote (21362)	7/6/2001 4:13:10 PM
From: David Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 22053

>>....we should apply the laws properly and not destroy a company with 39,000 jobs and represents 10% of the value of the NASDAQ. That was not my suggestion. Like I said, the appropriate remedy escapes me. What I do know is that prior consent decrees have been shrugged off and trampled, and have done nothing to convince them to abide by the law. Nonetheless, I'm not convinced that two 800 ton gorillas is preferable to a single 1600 ton one. >So who do you ask for permission from when you make your business decisions? The law of the land, for starters. >>The problem with Americans as I see it...is they complain when someone has it better than them...rather than the opposite. No complaints from me, so long as it's done on a level field. Microsoft has arguably been a driving force behind the recent technological revolution, economic expansion, and vastly increased productivity. And they have been rewarded handsomely, as they should have been. What I don't understand is their recurring attempts to stifle free and open competition.