If at any rate, doubt is still expressed about how much Capitalism [I'm very
reluctant in using the term Capitalism cos the Left has turned it into a term
of abuse and at best obscures the core of modern Liberal economics of free
enterprise] can re-invent itself to be in sync with historical realities,
then Judge Jackson's ruling on the Microsoft anti-trust legal tussle should
now seal that argument. That the worlds largest company together with the
world's richest man can be so humbled by the son of a POSTMAN, Joel Klein,
from the poor neighbourhoods of Queens New York, in itself lays asunder the
monstrous charge that free enterprise is all about the rich and mighty.
    From the deconstruction of Rockefeller's Standard Oil to IBM's humbling
ironically by Microsoft itself to the break up of AT&T, the charge cut-throat
competition in a free market economy would inevitably lead to monolithic
monopolies is becoming as bogus as the monstrous charge of the great man
himself Karl Heinrich Marx and Marxologists that Capitalism contained seeds
of it's own self destruction or Lenin's immortal assertion that Capitalism
would hand him the ropes he [Socialists] would eventually hung it with. The
Microsoft ruling has quashed that argument forever. Not only in a free market
are monolithic monopolies becoming a misnomer, but they are becoming
farfetched for anyone industrialists or free marketeer who dreams of market
dominance and eventually monopolising a particular market. This is because
genuine competition like a honey pot draws more players to it once it is
proven beyond reasonable doubt there is something worth to be played for. And
the beauty about it is that no player worth it's salt could afford to rest on
it's laurels with complacency; for there are countless others out there
looking from the outside checking for vulnerabilities that would make them
admissible in a particular market as Microsoft is learning much to it's
chagrin. If competition as such doesn't work, there are always anti-trust
laws which eventually would regulate bullies and those who foul of the
competition laws. The Microsoft ruling re-inforces that argument. And at the
end of the day, it is consumers who will win overall and enjoy from
competition as such. The much anticipated deconstruction of Microsoft will
release to other players vital human resources and so called intellectual
property that will eventually make the software and PC market more dynamic
and multi-faceted than it currently is.
     On Monday 3rd. April 2000, Judge Jackson's Microsoft ruling was a
vindication for Capitalism and Classical Liberal Economists that free
enterprise properly constituted and unleashed, doesn't promise a tidy and
utopian paternalist outlook but an untidy, flexible, rewarding, more dynamic,
enterprising and creative harnessing of individual and social talent and by
extension the most effective means of poverty eradication ever envisaged. I
believe I can afford the determinism.
    What a difference a day makes. What a difference Monday 3rd. April 2000
will certainly make in economic history!! On that day Capitalism won!!

Hamjatta Kanteh

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