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Home > Why Apple is a Sociopathic Company
In plain English, working stiffs, folks like Steve Jobs' (adoptive) father, a car mechanic and cabinetmaker, pay more so Apple can sit on a crock of gold. Of course, this is of a piece with the corporate philosophy famously summed up by an anonymous Apple executive [5]: "We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems." The inconvenient truth, forgotten at corporate headquarters, is there would be no Apple if not for the United States and, not to put too fine a point on it, the United States Treasury. Defense spending created the Silicon Valley where Jobs literally cut his teeth. The Pentagon's buy American requirement (since gutted) bankrolled the American electronics and cybernetics industries where the young Jobs worked, and it stocked the surplus stores Jobs and Woz raided to build their first Apple prototypes. Government R&D funded the invention of microchips, the Internet and other foundation technologies Apple has profited from so lucratively. And now it says it owes America nothing. This is sociopathic behavior. A child that acts this way toward the parents that fed and raised him is called ungrateful -- at best. Make no mistake: Apple is not alone in its behavior. Throughout the tech industry, engineers who helped build a company are told to train the lower-paid foreign workers who will replace them. Banks turn their backs on the taxpayers that bailed them out and refuse loans to their longtime customers in small business. Across America, workers who dedicate the best years of their lives to build industrial enterprises are thrown to the gutter as their workplaces are shuttered, moved to Vietnam, Bangladesh or some other human hellhole. While we talk about reforming the tax code and the closing loopholes in this law and that, let's be honest about what's at play:
A corporate psychology that refuses to acknowledge the existence of the society in which it operates. It is a species of pathological individualism that does not have the words "virtue," "decency" or "community" in its vocabulary [6]. If you're looking for poisoned fruits of the "Me Generation," don't go to Haight Street -- go to Wall Street and corporate suites. See more stories tagged with: america [7], Apple Inc. [8], Apple Operations International [9], Apple Store [10], apple [11], bangladesh [12], business [13], california [14], Company Technology [15], Computing [16], electronics [17], enron [18], ireland [19], pentagon [20], steve jobs [21], tax [22], technology [23], US Federal Reserve [24], US Treasury [25], USD [26], united states [27], vietnam [28], washington [29], car mechanic and cabinetmaker [30], cell phones [31], executive [32], foundation technologies [33], the new york times [34]
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/economy/why-apple-sociopathic-company
Links: [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/curtis-ellis [3] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/business/apple-avoided-billions-in-taxescongressional-panel-says.html?pagewanted=all [4] http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/05/20/read_the_senate_report_on_how_apple_ used_shell_companies_to_save_44_billion.html [5] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezedmiddle-class.html?pagewanted=2 [6] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/opinion/brooks-what-our-words-tell-us.html? partner=rssnyt&emc=rss [7] http://www.alternet.org/tags/america [8] http://www.alternet.org/tags/apple-inc [9] http://www.alternet.org/tags/apple-operations-international [10] http://www.alternet.org/tags/apple-store [11] http://www.alternet.org/tags/apple-0 [12] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bangladesh-0 [13] http://www.alternet.org/tags/business-0 [14] http://www.alternet.org/tags/california [15] http://www.alternet.org/tags/company-technology [16] http://www.alternet.org/tags/computing [17] http://www.alternet.org/tags/electronics-0 [18] http://www.alternet.org/tags/enron [19] http://www.alternet.org/tags/ireland-0 [20] http://www.alternet.org/tags/pentagon [21] http://www.alternet.org/tags/steve-jobs-0 [22] http://www.alternet.org/tags/tax [23] http://www.alternet.org/tags/technology-0 [24] http://www.alternet.org/tags/us-federal-reserve [25] http://www.alternet.org/tags/us-treasury-0 [26] http://www.alternet.org/tags/usd [27] http://www.alternet.org/tags/united-states [28] http://www.alternet.org/tags/vietnam-0 [29] http://www.alternet.org/tags/washington-0 [30] http://www.alternet.org/tags/car-mechanic-and-cabinetmaker [31] http://www.alternet.org/tags/cell-phones [32] http://www.alternet.org/tags/executive-0 [33] http://www.alternet.org/tags/foundation-technologies [34] http://www.alternet.org/tags/new-york-times-1 [35] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B