Copyright
2008 by Ethan A. Winning. All Rights Reserved.
So on a day when Exxon's profits for the last quarter hit $40 billion, Microsoft bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo in order to compete against Google. Now there is a complex sentence!
Now we're throwing the word ('cause I can't conceptualize it) "billions" around as though they were millions, another thing I'm still having trouble with. This whole thing has become a board game for the rich and ludicrous. The problem is that ultimately it affects me in a number of ways. If the new MicroWho monopoly takes form, it will ultimately make me the loser either because Yahoo disappears and MS starts charging for what was free, or MS screws it up so that no one can figure out how to use it. It also makes the broader "market" forget about Apple which may be the only innovative one left out there.
After all, Exxon is selling the same commodity and just struck it rich because of world affairs and maybe a little price fixing. (Yes, that goes for the rest of them -- Shell, Chevron, etc. -- as well. Microsoft's Vista is just an upgrade -- and that's questionable -- to XP, an already existing, and fairly good, operating system.)
Now this really shouldn't affect me, at least not psychologically, and it really doesn't. I can't comprehend it, but then again, I haven't been able to comprehend Congress' complete overlooking (as opposed to overseeing) antitrust laws. It doesn't affect me because I'm such small fry that no one kowtows to me or even looks at me as part of their demographic. I can't comprehend 17,000 jobs lost in one month (December), and I can't comprehend 1.7 millions laid off in 2007.
It's a Numbers Game: When I was in elementary school, the match questions went something like this; Johnny has $2.40 and gives Mary $1.36. How much does Johnny have left? What are the questions going to be like today? Johnny has $12 million, and Mary divorces him. Since New York is a community property state, Johnny owes Mary $6 million, but Mary also wants $18,000 a month for child support for her kids from her first marriage. She also needs $6,000 a week for groceries. How soon will Johnny be broke? (For the sake of simplification, attorney's fees have not been used in the equation.)
I lived in simpler times, with simpler people. It was preferable. Fortunately, I don't have to cope with the failure of MicroWho while Google gobbles and hopefully hires the remnants of the MS "merger." No, I'm going to die with XP on my computers, and Eudora Pro as my email program. I will not have documents that end in .docx, and if you want me to read something, it will have to be in older versions. I will not worry about billions, or even millions. I will not worry at all because I live in a parallel universe when Johnny still has $2.40 and Mary is still selling something for $1.36. What we don't know, but both are smiling.