BELL CEO’s FOLLOWING THE SIREN CALL OF MONOPOLIZATION DRIVE THEIR COMPANIES ONTO THE ROCKS

In a famous speech delivered to the annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) in 1974, John deButts Chairman and CEO of AT&T described the company’s mission as "an usual obligation to see to it that the service shall at all times be adequate, dependable, and satisfactory." This description of the Bell System’s mission originated in a 1927 speech to NARUC by Walter Gifford another Chairman and CEO of AT&T. One can grant that adequate, dependable, and satisfactory represents an apt description for what the Bell System accomplished in the 20^th century, but the description does not come close to capturing the typical objectives of capitalism.

Capitalism: Economic system characterized by the following: private property ownership exists; individuals and companies are allowed to compete for their own economic gain; and free market forces determine the prices of goods and services. (see InvestorWords.com )

What would the computer and networking industry have achieved if Gordon Moore had shared the Bell System mission rather than pursuing "Moore’s Law"? What do the residents and businesses in lower Manhattan think about the fragility of the telephone network made evident after September 11, 2001? What do customers think about the inexorable increases in the price of local telephone service, and the inscrutable bills designed to make price comparisons impossible? Does government consider the fact that the Bell companies have not increased their employment in the last twenty years a success?