Nicholas Lemann and Judith Shulevitz
Dear Judith,
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StumbleUponIn order to believe in the salutary effects of a breakup, you have to believe that the Microsoft application-software folks, rather than operating under the same conditions that an independent company would, have an enormous built-in advantage over their competitors, in more ways than just being extremely well-capitalized. Specifically: 1) Their software comes preloaded on many or even most new computers because it's sold as a package deal with the operating system to hardware manufacturers. ("Bundling.") Try buying a computer that comes preloaded with Windows and WordPerfect, and then let me know how it went. 2) For whatever reason, the Windows "application program interface" works a hell of a lot better with MSFT software than with other companies' software. I believe that if the Compaqs and Dells of the world made a deal with a company called Microsoft to preinstall operating systems on PCs, but this company was not in a position to sell them applications software (that being the province of a bunch of other companies, one of which used to be called Microsoft), then there would be more consumer choice in applications software. You don't believe this? To frame the issue as, "Well, sure, the breakup would be good for Netscape and Sun!" is absurdly narrow. Really, why do you think that this particular product category has less consumer choice than any other? Just because MSFT writes good software? P&G makes good detergent, too.
Mr. Brewer is starting to remind me of Vernon L. Fitchett. Did I ever tell you about him? As you know, just about every night I wake up in the middle of the night for about an hour--somehow I never graduated from my now 17--year-old eldest son's 2 a.m. feeding. One middle-of-the-night in the late '80s, I was lying on the living room couch reading when I heard a noise in the kitchen. I went in and saw a guy trying to open the window--evidently with the intention of stealing a TV set that was clearly visible inside. I shouted at him, and he ran away. I didn't get a look at his face. I did call the police, and they hunted around a little, but they couldn't find him. Then, two days later, the guy walked into the Pelham police station, turned himself in, and confessed. He said he felt guilty about what he had done. What a better place the world would be if everybody, including--especially--Colonel Charles F. Long II, had such a well-developed capacity for guilt! But then Mr. Fitchett got a lawyer and unconfessed in court.
Considering the alternative that you, as a Microsoft Kool-Aid drinker, felt constrained to propose to our strangehold on the "Breakfast Table," I guess I'd better suggest another option: that we go quietly, a deux. I think I can get us a deal where we don't even have to confess to anything.
Love,
Nick
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Reader Comments From The Fray
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[Notes from the Fray Editor: Don't like restaurants? Then let's discuss home cooking, and get some ideas for tonight's dinner, in this thread here. One of the cooks, Will Allen, has this to say elsewhere (context not really important, but he had been accused of pre-judging people): "I nearly always allow someone to clearly display their banal, wooden-headed, nature before denouncing it." There was an interesting thread on prison officers, the word 'perversely', and insults, starting here. Everyone was in cheerful mood in the Fray: Ex-Fed was able to start joke threads here and here (warning: this one was considered tasteless by another poster.) Ex-Fed also proposed marriage to one of the Breakfast Tablers, here: we're being a little circumspect because this involved being rude about the other BT-er. And there was a fan letter from Zeitguy to Judith Shulevitz here.]
If there's anything "unique" about American society, it's the amazing extent of our ability to think that we're somehow different from every other civilization in history. Maybe it's because our particular culture has only been around for a few hundred years, in a land where we are cut off almost completely from the ancient civilizations that have been around significantly longer. I don't know. But bored, whiny rich people? That's nothing new
--Mangar
(To reply, click here.)
It's not the self-pity that bothers me so much, though it's bad enough, but the truculence and righteous indignation and desire to grind the faces of the poor it seems to lead to.
To put it another way--what, exactly, are the rich and powerful so pissed off about? What is it that they want that they're not getting? 100% of the wealth instead of a mere 90%?
--Kassandra
(To reply, click here.)
(9/5)