Re: Offtopic, inappropriate jokes?

[Simon Cozens <simon@example.com>]

On Sat, Jun 09, 2001 at 12:02:43PM +0900, Frank BENNETT (フランク　ベネット ) wrote:
> Now suppose that Marie Callendar's has the good luck one day to see
> all the other sweets peddlers wiped out (because some sympathetic
> legislator makes their operations illegal, say, or because it suddenly
> and inexplicably becomes physically dangerous to compete in this line
> of business).
 
So anti-trust laws are to protect against clueless legislators?

> They could cut corners in other ways instead -- by substituting raw
> cane sugar for pies, or by closing a bunch of their stores, or by
> taking less care to keep insects and bits of dirt out of their pie
> fillings. But the idea is that they don't have to work so hard to do
> just as well for themselves as they did before.

But there's got to be a point at which it becomes feasible for someone
to start a new pie franchise undercutting them. In the case of software,
this happens when the non-existant Linux, Inc. produces an equivalent or
better product for $0. Then those who want cheap pie or OS can have it;
moreover, the monopoly would have created the demand for cheap pies, so
it's natural for someone to come along and fill it. It doesn't seem right
to start with free market capitalism, but follow it up with 'so long as
you don't do too well.' I suppose there are areas where it is impossible to
compete, such as the case of the phone company who owns all the cable (ooh,
look, threads merging) but those cases are usually state-sponsored monopolies
in the first case.

-- 
        buf[hdr[0]] = 0;        /* unbelievably lazy ken (twit) */  - Andrew Hume