|
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
Sorry, I guess I'm not going to cut this off as I had intended to. We do
seem to have gotten off topic...
On Mon, 18 Feb 2002, Fred K Ollinger wrote:
> > > > They certainly are NOT the best - they have competition, so they can't, by
> > > > definition, have a monopoly in operating systems. Do they have a monopoly
> > >
> > > But if the best doesn't win out, then it's clearly not an efficient
> > > market. How many times do we have to go over this?
> >
> > How many times do we have to go over what? You're the one who keeps
> > bringing up "efficient markets". What does that have to do with it?
>
> Well we are talking monopoly so markets are relevent.
Certainly markets are relevant. But whether any particular market is more
or less efficient than...*anything* is not relevant to the question of
whether Microsoft has a monopoly. I don't argue that it has nothing to do
with markets, I argue that it has nothing to do with efficiency.
> In an efficient market the best product wins out.
That's nice in theory. Unfortunately, I don't think reality bears that
out.
> A worse product can win out only if there's some kind of market distortion
> going on.
Again, nice in theory. But who gets to decide the "proper" way for a
market to behave, and thus what is considered "distortion"?
> One such market distortion is a monopoly.
And another is government coercion preventing people from making their own
business decisions. Interestingly, most (if not all) monopolies are
government granted and government enforced.
> As a pro-capitalist
> country, the US frowns upon market distortions which interupt market
> efficiencies. I thought they taught this is schools...
Yes indeed the government-run school system *claims* that the U.S.A. is
pro-capitalist - and then the U.S.A. turns around and "distorts" these
vaunted "market efficiencies" you like to talk so much about, with more
and more red tape, more and more government bureaucrats, and more and more
taxes burdening the very economy they claim to be protecting.
> Anyway, where can I buy a computer to dual boot windows and linux? Why do
> linux pcs cost as much as windows pcs? Where can I buy a pc with beos in
> there for free.
Nobody has an obligation to supply you with these things, at the price you
want, just because you want them.
Wayne
______________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group - http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug
|
|