If we punish such winners ex post, then we will diminish competitors' ex ante incentives to win the race. Aspiring athletes know of the rewards to dominance, and that is one factor that drives them to excel. For some reason, we have been paying heed to people who think that commerce is different, that commercial champions should be constrained. On the contrary, we should embrace our commercial champions. We would be glad to have Michael Jordan on our basketball team, so we should revel in the fact that Microsoft fights for the red, white, and blue.
Firms have to play rough to succeed in the today's global market place.
If we want our industries to dominate the world, we have to abide some brutish business tactics, and we have to let those firms play for the biggest stakes, including market domination. Content updated on 13 Jan 00.