I cannot stop the Federal Trade Commission’s persecution of Google, a government action stemming from the antitrust laws that violate the rights of businesses and their customers to act on their own judgment and associate voluntarily.

But I can offer Google—and its CEO Larry Page and its employees—the justice of expressing my gratitude for offering me (and everyone else) outstanding services that dramatically increase my productivity and enjoyment of life.

We at TOS use Google’s Drive to create and share documents (including this article) for the blog. Using Google documents enables our writers to easily share comments with each other, and enables our editors to offer suggestions in real time, with multiple parties viewing a document at once. We also use Google documents to track contacts and procedures for various tasks. Google’s Drive, which costs us nothing, has become central to the day-to-day operations of TOS.

I’ve also started using Google’s Gmail service. With my old email system, I could neither effectively control spam nor easily access my email on the road. Gmail has solved all my email problems. Gmail, which costs me nothing, has become central to my daily social and business life.

And I hardly need mention that Google built the most effective search engine in the history of the internet, allowing me to quickly find the news stories, essays, and map locations I need. Again, this costs me nothing, though I search the Web via Google many times a day. And I’ve barely scratched the service; Google offers many more innovative services than I’ve mentioned.

For creating all of these amazingly valuable (and mostly free) services, Google deserves our gratitude.

For violating the rights of those running that magnificent company, the petty tyrants at the FTC—and the lawmakers who passed and who refuse to repeal the rights-violating antitrust laws—deserve only condemnation.

Thank you, Google. Damn you, rights-violating thugs at the FTC.

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