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I'm getting a little tired of listening to all those poor people out there whine about high gas prices.  "Oh, the gas just costs too much.  Can't OPEC just increase production?"  I've heard this argument a lot lately, and OPEC has been snickering and saying, "Well, no.  You've already used up your quota for the next three years".  More troubling to me is that I've also heard rumblings that the general public is starting to come down on environmental legislation and the EPA, saying that all these silly restrictions surely can't be helping gas prices.  We should just do away with that, and with silly smog devices like catalytic converters as they cut into our mileage.  In how many ways must I shout "idiot" before you will understand?  You need to understand that while America is the "land of opportunity" that does not mean that you are justly entitled to every damn thing you want.

It was only a matter of time before I had to pipe up about this.  I currently work for Microsoft, so I have seen things from the inside.  I also recently saw the government screw me out of any chances of retirement without government assistance, since it managed to tank the entire technology market in recent weeks.  These two facts mean that if you're looking for an unbiased opinion on what Microsoft has done and what the government can do to correct it then you've come to the wrong place.  Nor will I denounce Microsoft as a greedy monopolist.  Greed is a human characteristic, and anyone who thinks you can combine 20,000 greedy people under one roof and make a utopian society that is free from greed is naïve.  Very naïve.  Every company is greedy.  The trick is to take that greedy energy and harness it to create great products.  What I want to rant about here are some "facts" that I have read in various papers.  These tidbits of information have been called facts, but are in fact opinions of various economists.  Economists are people that know a lot about business, but not so much that they could actually go into business for themselves and earn money.  Oh, and remember, before I really dig in here, that these are my own twisted little views and not Microsoft's.  

What, No Bunker?

While many Americans were hunkered down in their bunkers waiting for the end of the world, we didn't see it that way. It seemed impossible to us that any amount of computer failure could cause civilization to end. What, you say? It's not the computers but the second coming? Well, if the end of the world was truly upon us I'd rather be swilling wine in a great restaurant than sitting in a cold muddy pit slurping up some cold sphagetti-o's. So we headed off to Paris to ring in the new century…..