Subject: Re: Questions about Symbolics lisp machines
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 05:07:08 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3226280843254377@naggum.net>

* Thomas Bushnell, BSG
| Would this be true for other commercial products?  Is it *wrong* to
| give away bread that people clearly have commercial value for?

  As a general market mechanism?  Of course!  If bread were free, there
  would be no point in making one type of bread taste better than another,
  no point in having a large variety, no point in offering a means for
  people to request special kinds, because all change and variety has high
  costs and if you give something away for free, you strongly and actively
  inhibit innovation.  Also, you would have no way to control the amount of
  bread that would be consumed, so somebody who, say, figured out that
  using dried bread for fuel could just empty every grocery store of all
  bread and let it dry naturally.

  But would it be wrong to give your fmaily bread on the table?  No.

///
-- 
  In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none.
  In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.