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One of the sad things behind the story: Bill Campbell was Chairman of the board at Inuit while this was going on.

His story is inspiring. I’m a capitalist at heart. But I’m not a monopolist or a crony—and hope not to become one.

The best among us aren’t perfect. We should take this as a cautionary tale.

The mantra for Intuit, indeed for every for-profit company in the Valley, is to grow or die. Even a rockstar exec like Bill Campbell couldn't escape that imperative. Intuit decided they had to keep growing their market to survive and they chose to go after the huge majority of taxpayers who really didn't need their services. Once that decision was made, the logic of eliminating your competition followed as a matter of course, and the IRS itself was and still is their biggest potential competitor.

The vexing question: Why does there seem to be no space in the market for an honest, quality vendor? As in Fastmail, Costco, or the pre-Amazon Whole Foods?

Are there so few customers willing to pay a truthful, higher sticker price that such a business cannot be sustained?

Freetaxusa was a very easy experience last year. Federal is free, state is $10.

I haven't read their privacy policy. Perhaps a profile of me was sold to dozens of companies - but I think they fit your criteria pretty well.

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