Re: OT: Politics and other non-Debian ramblings
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Paul Johnson wrote:
> > So the Standard Oil Trust was a good thing, and we should welcome
> > it's return?
During the time Standard Oil was in operation, the price of kerosine
dropped some 90%.
When the company started, all petroleum that wasn't kerosine was
dumped. Rockefeller was so focused on efficiency that under his
constant pressure to innovate, the "waste" was consumed instead by
300 different _profit making_ products. This indeed put inefficient
competitors out of business, something I consider a very good thing.
By the time of the prosecution of Standard Oil, just like the
prosecution of IBM 70 years later, their market share was down to 10%
due to active competition and innovation pressure on all sides.
There may very well have been some nasty, reprehensible things done,
which deserve both wide publicity and boycott. A company, no matter
how large their market share, cannot force you to buy their product.
And unless they _sell_ product, they fall.
Condemnation merely because they were big is envy. I see the same
vitriol thrown at Microsoft, because of the same lack of awareness of
how an unregulated market works.
Curt-
- --
September 11th, 2001
The proudest day for gun control and central
planning advocates in American history
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