Lion in Winter

Now you see there's your mistake. You still hope you will actually like one of these people. You hit it spot on the first time. A lot of filthy rich people going on about fairness for the poor.

WVDreamer

Who the hell was the Republican dude giving the rebuttal? How was he chosen, damm talk about lacking charisma sheesh.

I am not a Obama worshipper, but he can at least deliver a speech when he needs to.

dakota44

He is supposedly considered by many as a future Republican Great White Hope.

Leslie

iPhones are made in China by children.

Suck that Steve Jobs.

dakota44

Jobs had lunch with Obama at which Obama asked what it would take to make Apple products in the U.S. instead of China. His answer? Those jobs are never coming back.

Of course not. The workers in China live in company dormitories 6 or 8 to a room, put in a minimum of 12 hours a day, can be roused from their dormitories at a moments notice and hauled off to work stations, have virtually no benefits or protection and get paid less than $2 an hour. Very interesting read here about Apple and the general topic of made in China and the alleged reasons for it beyond labor costs. The reasons suck, IMHO.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/bu...pagewanted=all
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Captain Cheesestick

Bee. Eye. En. Gee. Oh.

I frikking hate worship of Apple as an alternative to the mean capitalist pigs of Microsoft. I wouldn't be surprised if Jobs hadn't sat down with Hu Jintao and asked for him to relax the whole one-child policy just so he could get the iPhone 4S out faster.

cindyabs

He was not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy.

dakota44

Great article here, rather lengthy, about Apple in China. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/bu...d=1&_r=1&.html
Some of the comments of former executives are eye opening. The reports on working conditions are very disturbing. As an aside, Apple now has 96 billion in cash of which 66 billion is offshore, tax free. One would think they could build a lot of manufacturing plants in the U.S. with that, and take the tax deduction, and train workers who are more than capable of making an iPhone. But no. No slave labor in the U.S. for them to abuse. They have not given a stock dividend in 18 years, so not much chance they will now. Likely they will sit on the cash.

i.e. “We’ve known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on,” said one former Apple executive who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. “Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.”

“We’re trying really hard to make things better,” said one former Apple executive. “But most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from.”

“If you see the same pattern of problems, year after year, that means the company’s ignoring the issue rather than solving it,” said one former Apple executive with firsthand knowledge of the supplier responsibility group. “Noncompliance is tolerated, as long as the suppliers promise to try harder next time. If we meant business, core violations would disappear.”

Captain Cheesestick

I hate the argument too. "It's cheaper." Well yeah - now you've moved to Bangladesh coming back and paying parity wages and benefits would ruin you. It's almost like you've committed to never ever making them here ever ever again. "It's the only way we can compete." No it isn't. At all. Because you just reduced your overhead and not your prices. It's a decision you took to sell something at the same price but make it for much much less.

I have a relative who owns a dartboard company and he has them all made in Kenya. He talks a lot about how in the town his factory is in it is the finest job for hundreds of miles with better pay and working conditions than other factories there. He genuinely sees it as a noble helping-the-Africans thing! Of course he actually moved it there because he can make a dartboard for 3000% less money, avoid tax and safety regulations and still sell the things for the same price and make a ridiculous profit.

dakota44

The article about Apple also talks about how they constantly beat up on the suppliers for lower prices, as if they do not make enough profit already, and as a result the suppliers are forced to cut corners and commit the abuses they do in order to stay in business. The exact opposite of what many other electronics companies do in China. It's all about there never seemingly being enough profit to satisfy.

cindyabs

Well Jesus, Mary and Joseph, SOMEBODY needs to be!!!

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...ail&FORM=VIRE4

dakota44

And this is why I have a lot more respect for Bill Gates than I coujld ever have for Steve Jobs.

Bill Gates pledged $750 million on Thursday to fight three killer diseases and rescue a beleaguered health fund whose financial losses have cost it donor support.
The Microsoft founder said he is lending his "credibility" to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by making the donation through a promissory note so the fund "can immediately use the money and save lives."


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...#ixzz1kcSgwJAD

Sally Redux

Bill Gates is giving fantastic support to research

dakota44

I may not be a big microsoft fan, but I have so much respect for what he does with his money. He is someone with a social conscience as compared to Steve Jobs who was just a cheap arsehole.

Captain Cheesestick

I know it's piling on but I thought it was odd during all the euoligising of Jobs that they kept going on about Jobs drive to make great products and that's waht he did. Well yes and no. Apple made neat stuff - but the legacy of the iPod and early iPhones were that they were tatty junk. Jobs was freaking amazing at marketing. Anyone who could convince that many socially conscious anti-capitalists to buy an iPad and not care that an 8 year old Chinese girl made it deserves a medal.