-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 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 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iQEVAwUBRezbCS9Y35yItIgBAQIOgQf9FZzHOQOrX16ZtjF4D7fvWPaTlagcfvt+ cVC3uXOCDq9roml2EjetY+4l/a7HAUjqG96lnYu5c4w5P1xQP2MgShyC0OBnMdIg st36+08t0JCTAo34wC+cqALWq2H2yzEOyH2Ayr2BD68PBSarU7NwCEQdQpryDYfB LOLlTTkYpJim43Np8cSECFzMl2r+aeJxh9u1qrC+n1EZpvSkR3hbqNQ8ZxeUcEGW iVRImNoCyk0Q3f/1G6Bl1SgywFP6GKH7Dn3+9v0+Imrg0Os7NMUG2wkQlrIlbB7x piFsX4HN7DfAb78g8JfkiOOK/sfW+BXkxCfZCcYPp/NQeZyjcrBRtw== =LuEd -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
