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Perhaps some kind soul can explain to me the difference between our government and the mafia. Both appear to be in the business of shaking people down -- pay up or something terrible will happen to you -- although the mob may be somewhat more subtle about it.
Consider the recent hearings in Washington about competition in the software industry. I had presumed that it would be impossible to be more grasping and arrogant than Microsoft and Chairman Bill Gates, but I reckoned without the considerable talents of the U.S. Congress.
The Wall Street Journal quoted one Mario Cino, a
Washington lobbyist with strong connections to the House
Republican leadership
: The software barons don't
have the patience yet to work the legislative process,
but they're going to get the patience quick because it's
going to start costing them.
The article went on to observe that For lobbyists and
legislators, the plea is a self-serving one -- it's a call
for more business and larger campaign
contributions.
In other words, unless you hire some well-connected folks from Gucci Gulch, and unless you contribute heavily to legalized bribery in the form of PAC funds, then the government will harass you with new laws and regulations.
Now, I still believe that society at large, technological innovation and commercial competition would be best served if Microsoft were divided into three companies: operating systems, application software and book publishing.
And it's disgusting to read computer industry arguments
that all its wonders have occurred without any government
involvement. Starting with Charles Babbage's Analytical
Engine
in 1833 and ENIAC's use in designing weapons at
Los Alamos in 1945, continuing with various Fifth
Generation
research a decade ago, computer designers
have ever been willing to hustle all the taxpayer money
they could get their hands on.
Miniature integrated circuits developed much faster than
they would have in a free market,
thanks to the Cold
War billions that Americans spent on the aerospace industry
in the 1950s and 60s. The modem was developed by the
Defense Department, as was the initial Internet.
In short, the computer industry as we know it did not
emerge entirely from a few entrepreneurs' garages -- it is
also the result of government intervention,
which
Bill Gates decried in his testimony before Congress.
Aome of Gates's business practices are reprehensible. For instance, if you order a computer from Dell and specifically ask for Netscape Internet software, rather than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you won't be able to get it -- Microsoft's agreement with Dell forbids that.
For some years, Microsoft's deal with many computer makers required them to pay Microsoft a software royalty for every machine they sold -- even if the customer bought it without any Microsoft software.
If you had wanted the machine with DR-DOS, or Unix, or some other operating system -- Microsoft still got paid as if you had ordered MS-DOS. Little wonder that there's not much competition now in the operating-system business.
These are unsavory business practices, and we have laws
against predation and monopoly. Customers should be able
to get what they're willing to buy, not what Bill Gates
deems suitable, and if we believe in a free market,
then we need a government willing to enforce laws so that
we get the benefits of open and fair competition.
But whatever else Bill Gates has done, he never threatened my business if I set up a machine to run the freeware Linux operating system instead of his Windows. He never implied that I needed to hire a phalanx of lobbyists if I preferred to program with Borland Turbo Assembler instead of Microsoft Macro Assembler, or Catspaw SPITBOL instead of Microsoft C++. Microsoft has never hinted that it might regulate my expression if I write with WordStar instead of Microsoft Word.
Meanwhile Congress runs a shake-down, and its record is vile. Consider the UP-SP railroad merger and the resulting inept monopoly that is stifling large segments of the American economy.
Awash with campaign contributions in 1995, Congress specifically exempted railroad mergers from the regular anti-trust laws and put them under a special agency that the railroads wanted, the Surface Transportation Board.
Congress got what it wanted, campaign contributions. Lobbyists got plenty of business. Phil Anschutz and the Union Pacific got their monopoly. The rest of America got the shaft: bad service and higher prices.
That's what Congress was supposed to protect us from, and so the cure may be worse than the disease. As abhorrent as Microsoft is, Congress is clearly worse.
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