Punishing Apple, punishing success

Apple's highly successful iPod is to be punished by the anti-competitive French for being too successful, and therefore anti-competitive. This astounding lack of logic matches an equal lack of logic in American Antitrust actions, and from our own local Communist Commerce Commission, which punishes the successful simply for being successful.

The thinking behind the government penalising success is sumarised in the historic decision that broke up ALCOA some years ago:

It was not inevitable that it should always anticipate increases in the demand for ingot and be prepared to supply them. Nothing compelled it to keep doubling and redoubling its capacity before others entered the field. It insists that it never excluded competitors; but we can think of no more effective exclusion than progressively to embrace each new opportunity as it opened, and to face every new- comer with new capacity already geared into a great organization, having the advantage of experience, trade connections and the elite of personnel. [ Taken from Alan Greenspan's article, 'Antitrust' published in Ayn Rand's book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal]

Nothing could better summarise the underlying anti-success motif of Antitrust laws and the motives of the meddling arseholes who infest our own local Communist Commerce Commission (who most recently announced they would be 'reviewing' Fairfax's purchase of TradeMe with a view to throwing a spanner into it). More on this in the book The Abolition of Antitrust (reviewed here) and the Antitrust is Anti-competitive page of Capitalism.Org. Scott has more on the latest decision by the French.

LINK: France approves bill challenging iTunes - Sydney Morning Herald
Free competition at gunpoint - Not PC
Antitrust is anti-competitive - Capitalism.Org
French socialists punish ipod and itunes for success - LibertyScott
TradeMe block a tipping point? - Not PC

TAGS: Politics-European, Economics