Re: OT: Politics and other non-Debian ramblings

[Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca>]

Curt Howland wrote:

> 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%.

They're still in operation, though IIRC they call themselves Imperial Oil
now.  You can identify their gas stations because they're Exxon in the
states and Esso everywhere else.

> 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.

Try not eating.  :o)

> Condemnation merely because they were big is envy. I see the same
> vitriol thrown at Microsoft,

I'm not condemning them because they're big, I'm condemning them because
they 

> because of the same lack of awareness of how an unregulated market works.

Laissez-faire economics is an impossible pipe dream and Germany proved it. 
Taken to it's natural end, you get Germany's pre-WWII out-of-control rapid
inflation where soon it takes millions of dollars just to make a basic
grocery run.