So do legislators. Is it any wonder the American government seemingly lets these companies get away with anything? What did Bill Gates learn after the Micros

So do legislators. Is it any wonder the American government seemingly lets these companies get away with anything? What did Bill Gates learn after the Microsoft antitrust case? Don't snub Washington: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/14/bill-gates-i-was-naive-at-microsoft-on-antitrust-scrutiny.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/14/bill-gates-i-was-naive-at-mi... > "I was naive at Microsoft and didn't realize that our success would lead to government attention," Gates said, referring to Microsoft's antitrust challenges from more than 20 years ago. "And so I made some mistakes — you know, just saying, 'Hey, I never go to Washington, D.C.' And now I don't think, you know, that naivete is there." https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2002/04/29/321995/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2002... > For a couple of embarrassing years in the mid-'90s, Microsoft's primary lobbying presence in D.C. was "Jack and his Jeep." As the software giant's sole in-house lobbyist, Jack Krumholtz, then 33, had to battle endless traffic jams to get from Microsoft's suburban sales office to Capitol Hill. "Early on I spent most of the day in my Jeep Grand Cherokee on my cellphone," Krumholtz says. "I hit an all-time low on the day I was parked on a Capitol Hill side street reading through my mail with the laptop on the steering wheel." > No longer. After the Justice Department filed its antitrust suit in 1998, Microsoft--a company famous for its disdain of government--undertook the largest government affairs makeover in corporate history. The company now boasts one of the most dominating, multifaceted, and sophisticated influence machines around, one that spends tens of millions a year. It's no great surprise that one of the country's wealthiest companies can bankroll a beefed-up lobbying operation when it faces a crisis. But what few people realize is that Microsoft has reached the very highest ranks of lobbying so quickly. Says David Hart, a lobbying expert at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government: "Microsoft has joined the top tier"--with such longtime heavyweights as Philip Morris, Lockheed Martin, and AT&T.