I have this about the welfare from Paul Krugman.
Of course I think that Reagan and Bush were more against social spending. It was an even Clinton is not "liberal" (in the US sense of the word) enough on economics and not a defending of Reagan or Bush.

I dislike Microsoft as well and I'm rarely using it. However, it is a big company which has managed to make most schools using their system. Being good at engineering isn't enough. Zuse invented the first computer, the Fraunhofer institute invented MP3, both technologies became big in the US.

With regard to companies you may be right, it may be a cultural bias of the media I use, which gives me a false impression.

If you any economic theory which would make it useful for a country to have huge current account surpluses forever, I could agree, that it is arbitrary to assume, that things change from alone, but I have never heard of that. It would make sense for an Chinese emperor to let is slaves work all day for foreigners.

Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den Menschen
Volker Pispers