RobP

I am looking at the big picture - greed has driven most of human excess throughout history.

I think perhaps you are confusing apathy with laziness. Apathy which occurs when people feel powerless to do anything.

However, this is semantics.

How to motivate people to do anything - well keeping on about the excesses displayed by big business such as Pacific Industries? WellA single letter to an MP is the equivalent of 10 phone calls.

Instead of telling people like Bronwyn and I that our opinions are flawed you could start a petition. I'll even provide a link:

http://www.gopetition.com.au/

Good Luck

Good try, Fractelle. I've already got my own ideas, thanks, that I write to MPs about. I either put my efforts into things I think I can win on or those I feel most strongly about. This one falls into neither category for me.

BTW, where did I say that your opinions were flawed? They're just right half the time!

*Yabby do not worry Bill Gate will not go in prison,*

Well lets us hope not, for I will tell you a little story
about how things were, about 15 years ago.

A company called Apple had a virtual complete monopoly on
PCs, as they had an easy to use system. But you had to pay
their price, buy their gear and their accesories.

Along came Bill Gates, he released Windows 3 and I bought
a copy for 49.95. Now any PC could be bought and used with
ease. Next he released MS Office, which was a third of the
price of any competitor and did a better job.

Using Windows 3, by 1995 I was on the internet, at huge
expense, as a company called Telstra had the monopoly on
phone lines. They were Govt owned, but they charged up
to 9$ an hour for internet access. Today, with all those
"greedy" competitors to Telstra, I pay 50 bucks a month
for 30 times the speed.

Hundreds of millions agree with me, or they would not
have bought computers with MS as the operating system.

Would the world be a better place, if Bill Gates had
never released Windows 3 and made his fortune? I don't think
so.

I frankly don't care about his motives, but I do think that
credit where credit is due. It was not a Fractelle or a
Bronwyn who had the intelligence and business sense to
allow me to use a cost effective computer and go online
in 1995.

If he was greedy or not, I really don't care, although now
he seems to be giving his money away.

He certainly changed the way I operate in the world and
he did it very cost effectively. Why should I think that
he is evil?

Yabby
Do you mean if MS did not use its position for the OS in the market to drive its competitors out from the market, if MS allow the free competision, today we could be worst?
Do you support the free competision or not, IF you support the free competision then you should know that MS violated it many times.
You said where we are today of cause the MS but you did tell
WHERE WE COULD BE UNDER FREE COMPETISION, IF MS DID NOT BLOCK ITS COMPETITORS.
Every one must respect basic rules for a fair system, but MS according to many courts, did not
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Yabby,

Good points.

However, would it be reasonable if I came up with a far better system than Windows, sold it for a fraction of the price until I put Microsoft and my other competitors out of business and then jacked-up my price substantially?

Also, it's not competition that reduced the cost of telecommunications, it's technology.

Back in the Windows 3 era, digital transmission was in its infancy and analogue was horrendously expensive.

Now its far cheaper, they are all squeezing the maximum profit out of each byte, to the satisfaction of their shareholders.

For example, it costs Telcos absolutely nothing to provide the SMS service (it's carried by existing data streams) yet it's treated like some sort of bank fee and they all charge for it.

Now it's competition that's keeping the cost of telecommunications artificially high.

I have a few ideas about a new capitalism, thats the best we can hope for, a better way.
Theft of large amounts of money should always mean prison, and loss of ALL asset's bought with that money.
I am talking of cooperate crimes, and no matter who owns those asset's bought with the money it should be taken.
Investors and share holders set wages at the top, a cap must be put in place.
All borrowed funds must be backed by asset's that are sold if not paid.
We can never take reward for effort away, its the back bone of our progress.
AS have you ever looked at how much Bill Gates gives to charity?