Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy

[Rjack]

Ian Hilliard wrote:

> The simple fact is that a large number of middle sized companies doing the
> same work as Microsoft would be much better for the US economy than the one
> big Microsoft.

Never were truer words spoken!

The true purpose of antitrust law is to protect COMPETITION -- the 
free market economy is based on the principle of robust, fair, 
competition among COMPETITORS.

By twisting the saying "the antitrust laws protect competition not 
competitors" into "the antitrust laws protect consumers" the 
"Chicago School" of economic theory has destroyed the balance of 
competition in the free market. Protecting robust "fair" competition 
has as a corollary that consumers will benefit.

Actively protecting "competition" will *always* mean adjusting the 
advantages among competitors in a market. The problem becomes 
defining what is "fair" competition. Congress has mostly abdicated
their role in free market theory and has handed it to the Federal
Courts. It is "Chicago School" judges like Richard Posner and Frank
Easterbrook that are Microsoft's great enablers.

Sincerely,
Rjack :}