[Sussex] Microsoft fails to comply

[Geoffrey J. Teale]

"Mark Harrison (Groups)" <mph at ascentium.co.uk> writes:
> Geoff,
>
> Thanks for that. I suspect I have just determined who I shall vote for
> in May :-)

Well, whomever you vote for I'll simply say well done for voting at
all!  That goes to anyone (yes, including you Steve W.) who takes the
time to engage in the process and make an informed decision.

> I'm generally very sceptical of anyone who bangs on about "rich
> corporations" and misses the point that, in the UK at least, these "rich
> corporations" are predominantly owned, not by a small number of "fat
> cats", but by big pension funds, and therefore by those of us who hope
> to receive a pension when we quit work. (I for one, don't believe that
> the state pension is sustainable, and I think that anyone in their 20s
> or 30s who is banking on it is in for a nasty shock.)

Fair points, though the pension funds themselves are rich corporations
(although less rich than they used to be) and their owners have been
creaming off profit like no ones business for several decades prior to
the recent troubles (troubles I might add that where basically fuelled
by the government requiring those funds to actually be able to
delivers something approaching what they promised).

> However, in this particular case, having read the rest of the article
> from which you quote, on their website, they make it clear that they are
> talking about issues such as transfer pricing, transnationals, and are
> advocating things like "site to sell". Even more, I find myself very
> much aligned with what they say, despite the fact that I firmly in
> capitalism.

They are a party who are very pragmatic about these things.  Generally
people write them off as being fantastists and "not living in the real
world" but actually I find them refreshingly complete in their
thinking.

BTW, for anyone who hasn't gathered as much so far, we are talking
about the Green party. 

> I think, as ever, that they're over-simplifying, and I don't think
> that's _quite_ what economic theory says, but in the case of mass-market
> software there's no material difference between what they claim, and
> what economic theory really says. (Namely, that goods should actually be
> priced at the sum of the marginal cost of production, plus an
> amortisation of the fixed costs of production assuming the largest
> possible market.)

-- 
Geoff Teale
CMed Technology            -   gteale at cmedltd.com
Free Software Foundation   -   tealeg at member.fsf.org

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