> ----------
> From: Doug Henwood[SMTP:dhenwood at panix.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 1998 11:09 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: Greed is good
>
> CKHartman at aol.com quoted the execrable John Stossel:
>
>
> >JOHN STOSSEL: (voice-over) Bill Gates is a good example. He's now the
> world's
> >richest man.
> >He's got about $40 billion. But does his having $40 billion mean the
> rest of
> >us have lost $40
> >billion? No.
> >
> >BILL GATES, CEO, Microsoft Corporation: It's been fantastic...
> >
> >DAVID KELLEY: You see, this is the fallacy that there is some pool of
> wealth
> >there that's fixed.
> >And if I take more, you get less. That's not true. Wealth is
> constantly being
> >created.
> >
> >JOHN STOSSEL: (voice-over) Gates got so rich by making the pie bigger
> for
> >everyone.
>
> No, Gates got rich by staking claims to the cash flow unleashed by the
> labor of others. "Gates" himself has created next to nothing. Well
> there
> was that version of MBASIC he & Allen did in the late 1970s, but they
> didn't invent BASIC. Neither did they invent word processing,
> graphical
> interfaces, or anything. No one not drawing a Microsoft paycheck has
> ever
> argued that their products were particularly innovative or
> particularly
> great. And since when did "Gates" make the pie bigger for everyone?
> Thousands of people working for Microsoft, from its multimillionaires
> to
> the prison laborers who pack Windows boxes, did. And the Microsofties
> appropriated the work of generations before them, going back to
> Babbage and
> Lovelace (and much of it subsidized by governments and universities).
> But
> since Gates is one of the principal owners of Microsoft, he has the
> legal
> right to pocket the proceeds of other people's labor. How piggy.
>
> Doug
>
>