From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Bill Gates, Boogieman
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 12:20:43 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

	The website offered by Mike is proof that some people have too much
time on their hands and not enough fiber in their diet.  I'm sure that the
mathmatics works out but the underlying assumptions are just wrong.  No one
is forced to purchase Microsoft goods and services, and refering to
Microsoft as a monopoly is inaccurate to say the least.  With respect to
Mohandras Gandhi, quoted in the site, he had no concept of how a modern
economy works.  His proposal for Indian economic development was 300 million
cotton cloth spinning wheels.  Quoting Gandhi in opposition to British rule
of India makes sense.  Quoting him in opposition to the boogieman of Bill
Gates is like citing Ptolemy on why the Hubble Telescope can't work.

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Walsh [mailto:MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 12:05 PM
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: equal pay

http://db.photo.net/WealthClock

mjw

>>> leeandalexis at hotmail.com 04/04/02 12:08PM >>>
When Libertairians start talking about why we don't need government
supervision over private enterprise, I usually tell them I have 2 words =
for
them;  Bill Gates.

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: equal pay
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 11:49:53 -0500

	Ah, partially agree.  In corporations, there are definitely a lot =
of
egos.  However, said egos have to produce actual profits or they lose =
THEIR
jobs one way or naother.  <Snideness alert>  Even in the Federal Government=

where we work purely for love of country and salaries are merely the =
mundane
means of putting bread on the table, egos have a tendency to self destruct
sooner or later.  I could tell you stories...!

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Smith [mailto:sgs at aginc.net]
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 11:36 AM
To: WSFA members
Subject: [WSFA] Re: equal pay

ronkean at juno.com wrote:

 > I don't see the U.S. as being chock full of employers scheming to pay
 > women workers less than the men, but such an employer would be making a
 > bad business decision, in part because it would bad for morale.  As I
 > understand economics, wages in a free market tend to be set by the =
forces
 > of supply and demand, and employers who insist on making irrational =
wage
 > offers are working against their own economic success.

This is pure Libertarian theology, and has no particular relationship to
reality.  In the 1960s, I heard exactly the same argument against civil
rights laws.  As to "morale", it has simply never been a consideration
anywhere I've worked.  Term now is "motivation", and it basically
translates as "I want the bricks without straw by tomorrow noon, or
you're fired."

As to the "economic success" of a business, the differences in labor
costs between men and women (or blacks and whites) is in the "petty
chiseling" category.  You want to lower labor costs?  Move the whole
operation to Malaysia.

Anybody who's ever dealt with the higher levels of a real corporation
knows that it's run, not by economics, but by ego.

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."

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