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~~for educational purposes only~~
Playing Monopoly
by Joseph Sobran
Now that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson described
as "a pro-business, conservative Republican," by
the Wall Street Journal has ordered the breakup
of Microsoft, we should pause to reflect on antitrust
measures and monopolies of power.
Years ago I was asked: "Why don't you criticize
Big Business the way you criticize Big Government?"
A fair question. I answered that I wasn't forced to
deal with General Motors. I was free not to buy its
products, and it couldn't jail me for driving a
Honda. By contrast, I had to pay the federal
government roughly the price of a new car every
year and I never got the car. My money was
distributed among others who were favored by the
politicians.
Since then, Microsoft has replaced General Motors
as the emblematic giant corporation. And I do deal
with Microsoft. I use its products freely and
voluntarily, as everyone else does and they have
become indispensable to my work, even at this moment.
I don't feel that I need Judge Jackson or Attorney
General Janet Reno to "protect" me from Bill Gates.
Neither of them could do what Gates has achieved.
He is unique, a great innovator. They belong to
the huge class of interchangeable people who run
the government that is, who deal with people
through the constant threat of force, which is
the essence of government. They can be replaced;
countless others can do what they do.
Miss Reno, after all, was Bill Clinton's third
choice for her job. She will be remembered chiefly
for violent confrontations in Waco and Miami, and
perhaps secondarily for helping Clinton escape
investigation by special prosecutors. People like
her are essentially parasites; they produce nothing
to enhance our lives. They are the people we really
need to be protected from.
The definition of "monopoly" in business has
become highly technical and manipulable. But
the bottom line is that I'm free to use the
products of Microsoft's competitors. I could even
go back to my old Royal typewriter if necessary.
But Gates attracts the predators as what Tom
Wolfe has called "the Great White Defendant."
Jackson and Reno are basking in the glory of
having nailed him.
Why is nobody talking about the real monopoly of
power that of the federal government? The word
"federal" has become a misnomer; there is nothing
really federal about a government that can claim
authority over anything it chooses to control.
The Constitution is an antitrust act for
government. It was designed to prevent the
federal government from becoming a monopoly of
power, or what the Framers called a "consolidated"
government. A few specific powers were delegated
to it, and all others were denied to it. The point
of the Tenth Amendment is not, as is usually said,
to protect "states' rights," but to limit federal
powers.
But power tends to accumulate, and throughout
the twentieth century the United States went
the way of so many European nation-states. It
abandoned its tradition of federalism and
decentralized power, just as other countries
were adopting communism, socialism, fascism,
and other variants of the consolidated state.
The interpretation of the Constitution was
systematically and shamelessly warped to
authorize what that Constitution clearly prohibits.
But who will break up the federal government's
monopoly? Most Americans, drenched in
pro-government propaganda, are ignorant of the
Constitution especially if they've studied
constitutional law in a pricey law school. We've
fallen for the prevalent but preposterous notion
that the interpretations of the U.S. Supreme
Court somehow supersede the clear, original,
traditional, and logically inescapable meanings
of the text itself.
By inflating the meanings of a few phrases,
some of which aren't even in the
Constitution "interstate commerce," "freedom
of expression," "equal protection of the
laws" the federal judiciary has helped create
monopoly government.
A monopoly of the coercive powers of
government including the powers of taxing,
regulating, arresting, and confiscating is
far more dangerous, and potentially lethal,
than any powers a private corporation can amass.
Bill Gates can't arrest his competitors; he can't
lay armed siege to an eccentric religious sect;
he can't punish you for boycotting Microsoft.
And he can't distract attention from his troubles
by bombing foreign countries.
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