Re: Bill Gates and the PC

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 28 Jan 1996, boddhisatva wrote:

>               Mr. Proyect,

>       I think you finally have the idea.  The point is that the economic
> innovator (how about that substitute) is all the things you mentioned.  It is
> true that the selfless computer geek may labor in near obscurity, while the
> deodorant revolutionary may find a quick hit with the market.  By the same
> token , the cancer researcher may be a boondoggler.  The citizens don't
> always reward on the basis of ultimate economic benefit, or social benefit.
> The point is that it is their right to make that reward as they choose.

Louis: Look, Bohddi, the internet you are posting to right now is
probably the most innovative and technologically far-reaching use of
computer power that has been seen in the last 50 years. This has happened
without any "entrepreneurship". In fact, entrepreneurship is threatening
it. Socialism is feasible without the money-grubbing, mammon-worshipping
intervention of people like Bill Gates. All Gates did was find a way to
turn personal computing to his own advantage. He built a monopoly.
Monopoly is the enemy of innovation. People today have so little
imagination, living as we do in the heartland of monopoly capitalism,
that they can't think of another way to make progress and satisfy
people's demands. Most of the people on this list are Marxists who can
intellectually grasp an alternative. You are not a Marxist. Therefore, it is
even more difficult for you to arrive at some of these insights. Apparently
this does not prevent you from having an opinion on everything.


     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---

     ------------------