To be fair to that person quoted, people who came of age, like economists and those they influenced in say MBA programs, at a certain time and place after the mid 70s accepted certain premises as to shareholder wealth maximization, which had their place when it was done. It was iinspired in a funny way by a liberal economist John Kenneth Galbreath's claim in the 60s that American companies in the post-war era were fat and happy, which, however, some have thought went too far, for example, "Principal-Agent" rationalizations of executive compensation, if also a loss of concern about the industrial base, even eventually at the Pentagon. There's probably a natural cycle to such things as to say "stakeholders" like employees, and the country you live in, actually having more of a symbiotic place in 'optimal' decisions, even from a narrow shareholder view in the long run.

This is why I avoid Apple like the plague. I know that they are no worse than most all of them but most of the rest don't spend so much time talking about how great they are in the social world.

Interesting--Apple doesn't have an "obligation to solve America's problems". Seems like they've had quite a lot to do with creating America's problems by creating a demand and addiction to forms of communication and entertainment which are more quantitative than qualitative and which cost people an ever increasing chunk of their income with little return on investment. No one NEEDS and i-Pad or i-Phone nor the monthly bills which accompany them. And we most assuredly don't need them at the expense of jobs in America. Apple's quarterly profit margin was 25% based on the numbers above. They can afford to reduce their margin to 18-20% and make more of their products in the U.S.

No obligation to America? Why be incorporated here then? Why not move corporate headquarters and incorporate in China?

What? No takers? Why do executives live in the nice 'burbs of California, enjoy our legal system, enjoy our mlitary defense, ride good roads, send their kids to fine schools while buying our Congresss to protect their interests?

How "American" is a company like Apple?

It's "American" in name only. We should tax them on a global profitability basis and if they don't like it they can get out whereupon we should put tarrifs on their products.

:-) / r

Curious indeed.

I think you are right Don, it is the ultimate me first thing.

bob. if all these consumer goods were made here we would not have an unemployment problem, and we would have a recession, not a depression.

Hmmm...is the Steve Jobs worship dying down yet? Apple evil. Even the cell carriers are sick of being ripped off by Apple's greedy terms.

Assimilate into Android, for resistance is futile.

If Steve Jobs hadn't of faked his own death, he'd be rolling over in his grave.

I bought my first Mac in 1989. I gave up buying apple products 10 years ago. Their corporate arrogance makes me gag. I find their market strategies even more objectionable than Google's. At least Google gives you something for free before taking your soul. Lots of companies offshore the manufacture of their products. Apple just makes more money at it. It's not only cheaper for them, they can safely ignore working conditions. Apple, of all the tech companies who offshore production, cannot claim that it does so to provide cheaper products to Americans. Apple refuses to price competitively, making a deliberate choice to lure kids with the shiny while letting business buyers go to PCs. A company is not going to spent three times as much for the same thing, but individual consumers, especially kids, can be convinced to do that by focusing on creating desire where there is no need. So the pathetic excuse of cheap products does not even apply.

Mary, thanks for the visit.
Zuma, I thought it was pretty weird that he was so worshiped too. He was brilliant, but no saint.

Let's see now, Apple is chartered in California. Looks to me like its time for Global Exchange and other groups in the Citizens Rights movement to start a grassroots campaign to revoke their charter.

Here's and image I found a while back, right after Steve Jobs died, comparing him to Bill Gates. Interesting take on things.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoTDiMThPmCsA5eSJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3F_adv_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Dsteve%2Bjobs%2Bvs%2Bbill%2Bgates%26fr%3Dyfp-t-376-s%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D15&w=520&h=531&imgurl=www.mopo.ca%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F10%2Fbill-gates-steve-jobs2-520x531.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mopo.ca%2F2011%2F10%2Fpublic-opinion-steve-jobs-vs-bill-gates%2F&size=87.8+KB&name=Public+Opinion+%E2%80%93+Steve+Jobs+Vs+Bill+Gates+-+MoPo+|+Geek+News&p=steve+jobs+vs+bill+gates&oid=183700d4eff0824a2afee4db157d1541&fr2=&fr=yfp-t-376-s&tt=Public%2BOpinion%2B%25E2%2580%2593%2BSteve%2BJobs%2BVs%2BBill%2BGates%2B-%2BMoPo%2B%257C%2BGeek%2BNews&b=0&ni=21&no=15&tab=organic&ts=&sigr=123a0idkv&sigb=13p8skmsa&sigi=129379vsu&.crumb=VBX.WIfMsKf

Hmm no obligation to help solve the problems of it's founders own home nation huh, just a obligation to it's profits. Is'nt that an example of "corporate greed"? Where are the OWS crowd to complain about that? I guess to busy using their Iphone to get their friends together for a anti capatalist rally against big oil.Hypocrites. I bet Apple will still expect corporate tax breaks for the Fed though as well as Fed copyright protectios for their intellectual properties, as wellas US military to keep shipping open so they can ship their products all over the world. Rot in hell Steve Jobs you phony hippie POS fraud.