At 02:27 PM 15/03/1997 -0500, you wrote:
>John Dammeyer made some real good comments.  I have one thing to add to his
>"PS" paragraph:
>
>  "I got this SOFTWARE UPGRADE from the discount office supply store and
>fooled it into installing on my machine, because the upgrade is much
>cheaper than the non-upgrade product."
>
>This too is thievery.
>
>>When we 'knowingly' buy a product made by $2.00 per day labour we support
>>oppression.  IMHO, when we _support_ $25/hr for short term, professional,
>>consulting when we all know the _real_ cost is far greater, we do the same.
>
>True.  However, if I own the in-circuit emulator (I do) and compilers (I
>do) and PC (I do) and make a full time living doing this (I do), and I'm
>willing to work for $25 (nyet) and go out of business in a year (hopefully
>not), then:
>
>a)  I have gotten what I deserve by bad business practices, and
>b)  They have gotten what they deserve - a product without support.
>
>Who is the bigger loser?  The guy who made his $25 an hour or the company
>that can't fix a problem in their gazillion pieces that they made?
>
>Andy

Hear hear!  We cannot stop bad busines practices and in fact, as I stated in
my earlier posting,  the examples are somewhat 'cooked' as the
'SuperMegaStore' can and often does run at a loss until the compitition has
been eradicated or has such huge buying power that the playing field is can
never be level.  Fortunately there are customers that will not deal with the
mega stores and customers that insist on the lowest price often do suffer.

The biggest losers?  Often the guys in the middle that are squeezed by the
inept or the unscrupulous.  That, however is also part of the cost of doing
business in our system.  Better that than no chance at all.

John


Pioneers are the ones, face down in the mud,
with arrows in their backs.
Automation Artisans Inc.      Ph. 1-250-544-4950
PO Box 20002                  Fax 1-250-544-4954
Sidney, BC CANADA V8L 5C9