Posts: 1169
Threads: 15
Joined: January 12, 2019
Reputation:
4
Bad Apple
March 3, 2019 at 2:48 pm
OK, so a lot of you folks are probably going to read the following article and think, "Good Apple". Apple is one of the most out of control international corporations on the planet. They aggressively dodge taxes. They aggressively exploit workers who have no rights in nations that have no meaningful environmental regulation. Apple has thanked Trump for his tax cuts (even though Apple was dodging pretty much all taxes), and has promised to pump $350 billion of repatriated money into the US economy under the lower tax rate as a reward for the tax cut. The following article is about Apple's role as a self serving influencer of both US and Chinese foreign policies.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/0...ar-1084171
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
Posts: 30726
Threads: 2123
Joined: May 24, 2012
Reputation:
71
RE: Bad Apple
March 3, 2019 at 2:58 pm
And so do most giant corporations in America. Maybe instead of targeting one company, blame 38 years of Reagan's deregulation and union busting. There is practically no way right now with our laws the way they are to prevent us from doing trade with China, and both our nations are dependent on those products. And not just Apple, but all the stuff people buy at Wal Mart, and any dollar store. You are not going to stop global trade. You can insist on livable wages here and stronger global diplomacy worldwide long term to lead those nations to do better by their own people. But targeting one company in the short term wont fix what you are rightfully pointing out long term. Law is what leads nations, greed is what destroys democracies.
Posts: 6112
Threads: 53
Joined: September 25, 2018
Reputation:
20
RE: Bad Apple
March 3, 2019 at 9:19 pm
Apple sucks, period!
Posts: 35353
Threads: 205
Joined: August 13, 2012
Reputation:
146
RE: Bad Apple
March 3, 2019 at 9:22 pm
I have an Apple work phone.
I wouldn't have an Apple device otherwise.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
Posts: 9942
Threads: 21
Joined: September 8, 2015
Reputation:
79
RE: Bad Apple
March 3, 2019 at 11:31 pm
I have an iPod because I didn't like the other options for music playback. That PoS routinely freezes and won't play music. Shut it off? If it doesn't respond to the spinny wheel, hold down two buttons until it shuts off. Didn't shut off? Try it again!  I had a MAC for one task at work, back in the early '90s. It crashed so often (fuck you, little cry face icon, with a red-hot tire iron!) that I started saving every time I entered a line of computer code. Then when I was finally done, it would give me a different error every time I tried to compile said program. Finally got it nailed down, but fuck me, never again. I've used DEC, IBM, FPS and Cray computers without that kind of grief. Monster number crunching stuff, thousands of lines of code, no problem. Little shit 900 lines of code program? KMA, Apple.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
Posts: 46480
Threads: 543
Joined: July 24, 2013
Reputation:
109
RE: Bad Apple
March 4, 2019 at 5:55 am
(March 3, 2019 at 2:48 pm)Yonadav Wrote: OK, so a lot of you folks are probably going to read the following article and think, "Good Apple". Apple is one of the most out of control international corporations on the planet. They aggressively dodge taxes. They aggressively exploit workers who have no rights in nations that have no meaningful environmental regulation. Apple has thanked Trump for his tax cuts (even though Apple was dodging pretty much all taxes), and has promised to pump $350 billion of repatriated money into the US economy under the lower tax rate as a reward for the tax cut. The following article is about Apple's role as a self serving influencer of both US and Chinese foreign policies.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/0...ar-1084171
Did your phone break?
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
Posts: 1169
Threads: 15
Joined: January 12, 2019
Reputation:
4
RE: Bad Apple
March 4, 2019 at 2:48 pm
The Tariff Act of 1930 defines "forced labor" as "all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily." The statute also prohibits goods made by convict labor and/or indentured labor. These definitions can overlap in practice with child labor, defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. Goods made by child labor are included in the forced labor prohibition discussed here if they are the product of forced or indentured child labor.
https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspect...abor-goods
Foxconn's use of students and minors is part of its pursuit of low-cost, flexible labor. When the fallout of the 2010 suicides left Foxconn with a labor shortage, the Henan provincial government assisted with the breach. The province directed 100,000 vocational students to staff the Shenzhen assembly lines as "interns" (the Chinese term shixi can also mean "trainee") after providing them with nine days’ notice. Students were told that those who failed to comply would not be allowed to graduate.
Interns have become a significant component of Foxconn's labor force, constituting as high as 15 percent of the workforce—or 180,000 interns company-wide—at peak times, making it the largest "internship" program in the world. Teachers have been stationed in the factory compound to monitor attendance, and some interns have been as young as 14—by the company's own admission—thereby violating Chinese laws. According to SACOM's Chan, Foxconn, and other similar manufacturers, are "covertly" using interns to avoid detection and culpability. The young people are hired through the same labor agencies that hire Foxconn's "dispatch workers," who are deprived of standard benefits and protections.[85]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_...bor_abuses
We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.
Posts: 686
Threads: 17
Joined: February 15, 2019
Reputation:
13
RE: Bad Apple
March 4, 2019 at 11:53 pm
(March 3, 2019 at 9:19 pm)no one Wrote: Apple sucks, period!
Yup, as do corporations as a species. They are not people, except legally, and quite amoral. It's simply a bit more noticeable in the larger corporations. EG the owner of Amazon is allegedly the world's richest man. Possibly because of that, I refuse to buy anything from Amazon because of the way it treats its employees. I figure a man that rich has an obligation to treat his employees not only fairly, but generously.
Having said that, I managed to overcome my scruples 3 years ago when I bought my Imac. I bought it because I'd wanted one sinceI saw their first all-in-one at a shopping centre. I thought they elegant, and learned that they're also pretty good computer, albeit around 3 times as expensive as they should be.
My Imac has been the best computer I've owned. There is no way I will buy another. The only one I would buy is around $3000. For less than half of that, I can have a really spiffy PC tower built to my specs and still have enough for a nice 32 inch monitor.
I once went into the Apple store in the city. Hated it; reminded me of a happy clappy church. To get help I needed to physically confront one of the distressingly cheerful denizens.
Yeah, fair to say I also hate Apple
|
