CompuServe Messages

There isn't anything wrong with my attitude and/or arrogance. If anything there is no arrogance as I've taken the time to explain each and every point I took or made. I didn't just throw out *wild* statements without any backup. Granted I was talking in the hypothetical, but I'm not privy to Intel's financial statements. All I can do is use the economics I learned in school. You're automatically assuming that I and everyone else that chose to purchase a PENTIUM is getting ripped off. What information do you have to support that statement ??? You also stated that they need to rip us off so they can pay those 10 million dollar CEO salaries. I don't know of one CEO anywhere in the electronics business that makes that kind of salary. There are a couple that make over a million. I think the CEO of IBM makes the most at a little over two million. Sounds like a lot, but just like John Q. Technician gets paid for doing his job and accepting the responsibilities of it, the CEO's also get paid accordingly. If you're responsible for many billions of dollars, you should get paid accordingly. And you can thank the MBA's, with their emphasis on today's dollars, for the changes in worker and executive salaries. Now, I'm not afraid to state than I'm jealous of anyone making that kind of money…..wish I was. But just because they are making that, I'm not going to say that it's unfair. I'm also not going to insist that they share their good fortune with the rest of the world. I also don't think that because they are making so much that it limits what I can make. The money supply isn't static, so there is enough to go around if someone is willing to make the effort to get what they want. But since you seem to take exception to my point of view, lets take a look at the P6. In your view, Intel should not be allowed to recoop the billions of dollars they spent developing the P5. So let's say that they are not allowed to do so. What happens to the P6 ??? Ain't going to be one is there ??? So no P6. That means no new cells to build the chip. So no new investment in their manufacturing facilities, and no jobs for the people that build the cells. Since there will be no P6, we don't need the people to actually manufacture the chip….the people that no longer work in the cells that aren't being built. We don't need the marketing people to hype the new chip either, or the people that work in the advertising agencies that actually put the materials together. We don't need the packaging people that make the shipping materials for the new chips, or the warehouse people to stock it, or the shipping people to get it on the trucks, or the drivers of the trucks. We also don't need the wholesalers and retailers as there ain't no chips to distribute or sell. We don't even need the people that supply the raw materials for the chips as we don't need those materials now. Wow…we just saved lots of money didn't we ??? But we might have angered those little people that bought Intel stock expecting their dividend, but that's OK. Anyone that can afford to buy stock must be rich…..right ?? We also put a lot of people on unemployment too. Guess maybe trickle down really does works………<g>. Why does SGI charge more for their workstation ??? I don't know, I'm not the economist. Why do plums cost more than apples ??? Why are bananas so expensive ??? I can hazard a guess however. SGI don't build anywhere near the number of workstations that a place like GATEWAy does, nor purchase the number of chips that Intel makes and sells annually. The cost per unit is going to be greater when you build 1000 of something, than it is going to be if your are building 100,000 of something. The only thing in common between the SGI station and a pentium based PC in your example, is that they are both computers, and they are both capable of running under NT. But your question is more like asking me why a Cadillac costs more at the dealer's place of business than a Chevrolet does ??? Ohhh…Ohhh….I know, I know !!!! Cause they can *force* us to pay more for the Cadillac….<grin>. No one is dumb enough to overprice their products, if there is competition in the market place. Those that have done so, have paid the price at the sales counter. Look at what has happened to baseball this year. The only one's that I know of that have been able to avoid this consequence are the Japanese car manufacturers when they first entered our markets, but this is more of a critique of the attitude of the US manufacturers that opened the door for this experience, and the oil companies in the middle 70's with their artificial oil crisis that was used to boost the price of gasoline above a dollar.