X-Message-Number: 26456
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 09:51:33 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: reply to David Stodolsky

To David Stodolsky:

I shall try to be brief here because it's close to when I go to bed
here in Australia.

I distrust any organization which has any kind of monopolism in what
it does. This includes governments. If one or more competing organizations
provides help to the poor (or anything else, for that matter) then 
they won't turn bad all at once, and if one does, then it will soon
cease to have customers and disappear. Dealing with poverty should
not be the role of ANY government. I don't mean that we should not deal
with poverty at all, but we're not a government. The best a goverment
might do here is to give tax and legal advantages to organizations
which do help the poor, or individual persons who do the same.

I will finally point out that my attitude applies to businesses too:
I point out corporations such as Microsoft, which tries to use its
(close to but fortunately not there yet) monopoly power to force
computer makers to use its operating system and software rather than
any other. Monopolies are unsafe and ultimately bad, whether they
are businesses or governments.

          Best wishes and long long life,

               Thomas Donaldson

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