The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
previous order of the House, the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. PAUL) is recognized
for 5 minutes.
1999 Ron Paul 114:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, by now, the
Microsoft antitrust case should have
caught every Member’s attention. This
is a good time for Congress to reassess
the antitrust laws.
1999 Ron Paul 114:2 Under current law, collusion, negotiations,
or even discussions about
markets may be enough to find someone
guilty of breaking these laws.
Prices in one industry that are too
high, too low, or all the same are suspect
and could be used as evidence of
monopoly practices.
1999 Ron Paul 114:3 We must remember bigness in a free
market is only achieved by the vote of
consumers, supporting a company that
gives them a good product at a low
price.
1999 Ron Paul 114:4 It is an economic truism that the
only true monopoly is government protected,
such as the Post Office or a
public utility. There is nothing more
annoying than a government bureaucrat
or Federal judge gleefully condemning
a productive enterprising capitalist
for doing a good job. These little
men filled with envy are capable of
producing nothing and are motivated
by their own inadequacies and desires
to wield authority against men of talent.
1999 Ron Paul 114:5 In a free market, the consumer is
king, not the businessman. The regulators
hate both and relish their role of
making sure the market is fair according
to their biased standards.
1999 Ron Paul 114:6 Antitrust suits are rarely, if ever,
pursued by consumers. It is always a
little disgruntled competitor, a bureaucrat
who needs to justify his own existence.
1999 Ron Paul 114:7 Judge Jackson condemned Microsoft
for being a “vigorous protector of its
own self-interests.” Now this is to be a
crime in America. To care for oneself
and do what corporations are supposed
to do, that is, maximize profits for
stockholders by making customers
happy, is the great crime committed in
the Microsoft case.
1999 Ron Paul 114:8 Blind to the fact that there is no conflict
between the self-interest of a capitalist
and the consumers’ best interests,
the trust busters go their merry
way without a complaint from the Congress
which could change these laws.
1999 Ron Paul 114:9 Only blind resentment drives the economic
planners and condemns business
success, good products, low prices, and
consumer satisfaction while undermining
the system that has provided so
much for so many.
1999 Ron Paul 114:10 Many big companies have achieved
success with government subsidies,
contracts, and special interest legislation.
This type of bigness must be distinguished
from bigness achieved in a
free market by providing consumer satisfaction.
1999 Ron Paul 114:11 To help rectify the situation, Congress
should first stop all assistance to
business, no more corporate welfare, no
bailouts like we saw to Lockheed,
Chrysler, Long-Term Capital Management
and many others.
1999 Ron Paul 114:12 Second, we ought to repeal the archaic
and impossible-to-understand
antitrust laws.
1999 Ron Paul 114:13 Next, we should crown the consumers
king and let them vote with their
money on who should succeed and who
should fail.
1999 Ron Paul 114:14 We should then suppress the envy
which drives the anticapitalist mentality.
1999 Ron Paul 114:15 The Bill Gateses of the world can
only invest their money in job-creating
projects or donate it to help the needy.
The entrepreneurial giants are not a
threat to stability or prosperity. Government
bureaucrats and Federal
judges are. But strict enforcement of
all the ill-inspired antitrust laws does
not serve the consumer, nor the cause
of liberty.
