Competition: state of affairs existing among rival producers in which said producers strive to outdo one another in quality, delivery, features, and prices in order to gain larger share of the market.
Now that that’s out of the way…
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) accuses Intel Corporation — arguably the most influential company in driving the high tech revolution of the past three decades — of anti-competitive behavior. The FTC makes this accusation at the end of a period in which Intel steadily improved quality and delivery, increased product features, and reduced prices by nearly 50% a year.
So then, what is the FTC’s complaint? Well, Intel didn’t play “fair” with competitors. The Wall Street Journal points out:
The FTC is tasked with protecting the interests of consumers, not competitors. And consumers are benefiting from an intensely competitive and highly innovative computer chip industry.
Unfazed in violating its own mission, the ideologically blinded, fairness-obsessed FTC is coming after Intel — again.
Intel is proud of its track record of aggressively cutting prices while increasing quality. What does the FTC want Intel to do instead? Get ready for a government demand that Wesley Mouch of Atlas Shrugged would have been proud to inflict on evil manufacturers.
Again from WSJ:
The lawsuit states that the FTC seeks a remedy “[r]equiring Intel to make available technology . . . to others, via licensing or other means, upon terms and conditions as the Commission may order.”
So, all that Intel has to do is share its technology with any other company that government fairness mongers order. Oh, and the FTC wants to control how Intel sets its prices too.
In Obama era socialism, almighty and omnipotent central planners on the Hill, utterly disconnected from consumer and manufacturer and having had zero experience in manufacturing anything, will determine what the consumer needs, how the producer should meet those needs, and what that producer should charge. Has this ever worked well at any time in the history of civilization? Has such elitist control ever outdone free-market capitalism in supplying with what the people need at affordable prices? No and no. Will it work this time? Sure.
Time for the achievers to head for the Colorado Rockies.
Oh… haven’t read Atlas Shrugged yet? Buy it. Read it.
