Monday, December 6, 2010

Microsoft: How To Become a Billionare

Take a look at the growth of Microsoft, prox 1980 forward in dollars. Click to enlarge.



Take a look at growth of government employees, rough same time period. Click to enlarge, but consider from 1982 on.

Check out Apple as well, in the first chart, from the source.

So what do we see.  We see a coincidence, wherein the growth of government and growth in sales of Microsoft, track hand-in-hand from 1980 on.  Coincidence is not science, but I think it would not be too hard for someone in microsoft to report on how close microsoft sales track the growth of government.  A microsoft employee once told me the company gets 70% of its sales out of one box (microsoft works, and the majority of sales from government sources. What was happening?  As government grew exponentially, they handed every employee a legal copy of microsoft whatever.  Although these hires really had nothing to do, they must be kept busy.  Microsoft is most excellent make-work sandbox, especially since the internet.  See microsoft grow with windows, and again with MSIE.

So what?  Well, as microsoft became the govt OS of choice, those who ever more had to report to govt bought the software.  There was a downward spiral of necessity yet impracticality.  Microsoft was not working in a free market since the market was wildly distorted by its exponentially important customer: Uncle Sam.

Microsoft is notorious for poor security, and spam.  (Apple is not, more later.)  Since uncle Sam is MS #1 customer, the cost of security is borne by the taxpayers when US law enforcement is obliged to protect government interests against hackers.  What would have happened in the free market?

Apple is much more free market.  Look at the graph.  Although superior product in every way, their margins are narrower, since they have plenty of people who compete against them.   Although not perfect, Apple products are more secure, relative to microsoft.

Now, Bill Gate has made tens of billions from microsoft. Gates has put that money into a "charity" so it will be protected from taxes, and for his family, in perpetuity, at the expense of taxpayers who pay for "law enforcement.". At the same time, his father campaigns tirelessly for people with a mere 2 or 3 million to pass on to their kids to be taxed at 50% or more, destroying family businesses. He spends some of the protected "charity" money on putting chemicals in people brown and darker, and this is important as people around the world no longer trust US Govt to do so, since it was purposely poisoning US citizens in Tuskegee and Guatemala, two places they were caught red-handed..  His business partner, Paul Allen, is putting his "charity" money into putting chemicals into those peoples animals.

Never mind all that, their targets are on to them.  Let's go back to where they got their money in the first place.  By not having a free market to sell into, Gates never had to bother making his software secure.  Look at the profits of Apple, and the sales, and the profit margins: not so good if you actually make the software secure.  Resolved: Gate's billions that he has pocketed represents the money he conserved by making his software secure. Since his "customers" did not care, and others were obliged to buy the product, he harvested a tidy sum putting out a shoddy product. Some business phd candidate should study this, and get the facts. I suspect we would see, overall, Microsoft has been a net deficit on business in America. Excess wealth is always a function of working either with or against government policy.  It cannot be formed without market distortion from government policy, backed up by violence.


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