On Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 6:44:23 PM UTC-5, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...
Not too many billions were earned totally ethically. More were
basically "stolen" - one way or the other.

Cite for us the many examples of American billionaires where they stole it.




Gates did with Microsoft.

He sold IBM on a system that he did not really have.

He markeded his system for $ 49.99 or so and Digital Research was about
$ 150.

So it's now a crime to offer a better or similar product at a lower price
than a competitor? WTF?




He proceeded to almost steal much other softwear.

Show us the examples.





Walmart is doing similar things. They will make a contract with a
company to buy much more than the company can produce. The company
borrows money to expand. The next time Walmart cuts the price of the
contract. The company has to take that reduced price as they have to
pay back a big load.

Sounds like more sour grapes and attempts to rewrite history. More likely
Walmart gave them a big deal, they expanded, more competition showed up,
so Walmart like most other businesses could obtain the product at lower
prices. If company A wanted a long term commitment from Walmart, then
they should have required that in the contract or not taken the new business.
But again, if you have specific examples, I'd like to look at them.





If you look at the history of the 'giants' around the start of the
century you can see how they sort of stole the millions then which would
convet to billions now.

That's more BS. Were guys like Rockefeller and Carnegie tough competitors
who built huge businesses? Yes. But they also built the US oil and
steel industries and like Gates put out great products at low prices
that helped advance and transform America. And they did it within the
laws at the time. Since then the laws have changed and some of what
they did would now be illegal, but that's a long way from stealing.
They were smart, shrewd entrepreneurs.