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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on January 23, 2012, 06:40:39 AM
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Apple's Jobs to Obama: "jobs aren't coming back" to U.S.
By CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER
The New York Times
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 1:00 a.m.
When President Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley's top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.
But as Steve Jobs of Apple spoke, Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: What would it take to make iPhones in the United States? Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.
Why can't that work come home? Obama asked.
Jobs' reply was unambiguous. "Those jobs aren't coming back," he said, according to another dinner guest.
The president's question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn't just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple's executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their U.S. counterparts that "Made in the USA" is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.
Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on Earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.
However, what has vexed Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple -- and many of its high-technology peers -- are not nearly as avid in creating U.S. jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays.
Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas, a small fraction of the more than 400,000 U.S. workers at General Motors in the 1950s, or the hundreds of thousands at General Electric in the 1980s. Many more people work for Apple's contractors: An additional 700,000 people engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple's other products. But almost none of them work in the United States. Instead, they work for foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost every electronics designer relies upon to build their wares.
"Apple's an example of why it's so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now," said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House.
"If it's the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried."
But while Apple is far from alone, it offers a window into why the success of some prominent companies has not translated into large numbers of domestic jobs. What's more, the company's decisions pose broader questions about what corporate America owes Americans as the global and national economies are increasingly intertwined.
"Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn't the best financial choice," said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. "That's disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity."
'I WANT A
GLASS SCREEN'
In 2007, a little more than a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.
Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.
People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry their keys in their pocket. "I won't sell a product that gets scratched," he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. "I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks."
After one executive left that meeting, he booked a flight to Shenzhen, China. If Jobs wanted perfect, there was nowhere else to go.
For more than two years, the company had been working on a project that presented the same questions at every turn: How do you completely reimagine the cellphone? And how do you design it at the highest quality -- with an unscratchable screen, for instance -- while also ensuring that millions can be manufactured quickly and inexpensively enough to earn a significant profit? The answers, almost every time, were found outside the United States.
In its early days, Apple usually didn't look beyond its own backyard for manufacturing solutions. But by 2004, Apple had largely turned to foreign manufacturing. Guiding that decision was Apple's operations expert, Timothy D. Cook, who replaced Jobs as chief executive last August, six weeks before Jobs' death. Most other U.S. electronics companies had already gone abroad, and Apple, which at the time was struggling, felt it had to grasp every advantage.
In part, Asia was attractive because the semi-skilled workers there were cheaper. But that wasn't driving Apple. For technology companies, the cost of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of companies.
For Cook, the focus on Asia "came down to two things," said one former high-ranking Apple executive. Factories in Asia "can scale up and down faster" and "Asian supply chains have surpassed what's in the U.S." The result is that "we can't compete at this point," the executive said.
The impact of such advantages became obvious as soon as Jobs demanded glass screens in 2007.
For years, cellphone makers had avoided using glass because it required precision in cutting and grinding that was extremely difficult to achieve. Apple had already selected a U.S. company, Corning Inc., to manufacture large panes of strengthened glass. But figuring out how to cut those panes into millions of iPhone screens required finding an empty cutting plant, hundreds of pieces of glass to use in experiments and an army of midlevel engineers. It would cost a fortune simply to prepare.
Then a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory.
When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant's owners were already constructing a new wing. "This is in case you give us the contract," the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.
The Chinese plant got the job.
"The entire supply chain is in China now," said another former high-ranking Apple executive. "You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours."
It is difficult to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the United States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying U.S. wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone's expense. Since Apple's profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward.
But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans -- it would require transforming the national and global economies. Apple executives believe there simply aren't enough U.S. workers with the skills the company needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility. Other companies that work with Apple, like Corning, also say they must go abroad.
"Our customers are in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China," said James B. Flaws, Corning's vice chairman and chief financial officer. "We could make the glass here, and then ship it by boat, but that takes 35 days. Or, we could ship it by air, but that's 10 times as expensive. So we build our glass factories next door to assembly factories, and those are overseas."
INNOVATION'S LOSERS
Toward the end of Obama's dinner last year with Jobs and other Silicon Valley executives, as everyone stood to leave, a crowd of photo seekers formed around the president. A slightly smaller scrum gathered around Jobs. Rumors had spread that his illness had worsened, and some hoped for a photograph with him, perhaps for the last time.
Eventually, the orbits of the men overlapped. "I'm not worried about the country's long-term future," Jobs told Obama, according to one observer. "This country is insanely great. What I'm worried about is that we don't talk enough about solutions."
In the last decade, technological leaps in solar and wind energy, semiconductor fabrication and display technologies have created thousands of jobs. But while many of those industries started in America, much of the employment has occurred abroad.
Companies have closed major facilities in the U.S. to reopen in China. By way of explanation, executives say they are competing with Apple for shareholders. If they cannot rival Apple's growth and profit margins, they won't survive.
The pace of innovation, say executives from a variety of industries, has been quickened by businessmen like Jobs. GM went as long as half a decade between major auto redesigns. Apple, by comparison, has released five iPhones in four years, doubling the devices' speed and memory while dropping the price that some consumers pay.
Before Obama and Jobs said goodbye, the Apple executive pulled an iPhone from his pocket to show off a new application -- a driving game -- with incredibly detailed graphics. The device reflected the soft glow of the room's lights.
The other executives, whose combined worth exceeded $69 billion, jostled for position to glance over his shoulder. The game, everyone agreed, was wonderful.
There wasn't even a tiny scratch on the screen.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120123/ARTICLE/301239999?template=printart
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If obama is so economically illiterate, inept, incompetent, idiotic, and uninformed to even ask that question, isnt that proof alone that this fool has no business w a second term?
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'Jobs' reply was unambiguous. "Those jobs aren't coming back," he said, according to another dinner guest.'
to be clear - another dinner guest = anonymous?
I just want to be sure you are agreeing with 2nd hand anonymous heresay from a deceased person - from a person selling a book -
yet several women standing in front of a camera accusing Cain of booty calling - that's all nonsense?
HAHAHAHAHHA come on, mannnnnnnnnnnnn
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'Jobs' reply was unambiguous. "Those jobs aren't coming back," he said, according to another dinner guest.'
to be clear - another dinner guest = anonymous?
I just want to be sure you are agreeing with 2nd hand anonymous heresay from a deceased person - from a person selling a book -
yet several women standing in front of a camera accusing Cain of booty calling - that's all nonsense?
HAHAHAHAHHA come on, mannnnnnnnnnnnn
You really are a sad sack of shit lately. You will do anything to defend obama, you fucking love him and lie your ass off about it.
Just be honest! Stop your lies and bs.
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You really are a sad sack of shit lately. You will do anything to defend obama, you fucking love him and lie your ass off about it.
Just be honest! Stop your lies and bs.
I'm pointing out your varying standard of proof.
You believed some dude selling a book about ventura. but you didn't believe women with sworn oaths about Cain.
I'm betting you still believe larry sinclair - who failed 2 polys' - about sex with obama. right?
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I'm pointing out your varying standard of proof.
You believed some dude selling a book about ventura. but you didn't believe women with sworn oaths about Cain.
I'm betting you still believe larry sinclair - who failed 2 polys' - about sex with obama. right?
Yeah - everyone is lying, this never happened. Got it.
you thug messiah is a genius and can do not wrong. Got it.
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Why would Steve Jobs bring jobs back to America when he has Foxconn. This is the reason why I hate Apple products so much because of shit like this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn
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Ok 3333 I need you to understand this. Please try your hardest to grasp this. When people like myself, 240, Ozmo, Hugo are in conflict with your "reports" it’s not because we are Obama supporters, as we have all denounced Obama for other candidates. This is well known, highly documented and common knowledge at this point. But what we do disagree is what you qualify as "PROOF". Just because some "god knows who source" says some shit doesn’t make it true. And when you get called on it, it’s not because we are siding up to Obama, it’s because your story is weak, full of holes, lacks credibility and for the most part full of total shit without a shred of journalistic integrity to speak of. There is a difference.
We all know you hate Obama, and that’s fine. But your dilute your message when trying to make a point of how bad Obama is but your example is a complete lie and from a "shaky at best” source.
Please son... I’m really hoping you get this and you understand this. When you say Obama called swat on grandmothers. Despite the reports saying otherwise, yet still hold on trying to qualify it any which way you can, that’s what I disagree with. Now of you say “Obama’s stim bill was bad because of XYZ" I would hear you out. But when you say "Obama sucks because he spent $200 mil a day in India" that’s when you lose me and I have to ask for facts to back that up.
Please I'm seriously praying to God that you understand this. It is sad when watching a grown man such as yourself, struggle with disagreements and the source of the disagreement.
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Ok 3333 I need you to understand this. Please try your hardest to grasp this. When people like myself, 240, Ozmo, Hugo are in conflict with your "reports" it’s not because we are Obama supporters, as we have all denounced Obama for other candidates. This is well known, highly documented and common knowledge at this point. But what we do disagree is what you qualify as "PROOF". Just because some "god knows who source" says some shit doesn’t make it true. And when you get called on it, it’s not because we are siding up to Obama, it’s because your story is weak, full of holes, lacks credibility and for the most part full of total shit without a shred of journalistic integrity to speak of. There is a difference.
We all know you hate Obama, and that’s fine. But your dilute your message when trying to make a point of how bad Obama is but your example is a complete lie and from a "shaky at best” source.
Please son... I’m really hoping you get this and you understand this. When you say Obama called swat on grandmothers. Despite the reports saying otherwise, yet still hold on trying to qualify it any which way you can, that’s what I disagree with. Now of you say “Obama’s stim bill was bad because of XYZ" I would hear you out. But when you say "Obama sucks because he spent $200 mil a day in India" that’s when you lose me and I have to ask for facts to back that up.
Please I'm seriously praying to God that you understand this. It is sad when watching a grown man such as yourself, struggle with disagreements and the source of the disagreement.
This was in the NYT asshole!
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This was in the NYT asshole!
Dear God...
Please tell me you understand what i just posted. Lets start with that.
33333 Do you understand what ive posted above?
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Obama sparred with Steve Jobs over outsourcing
By BYRON TAU | 1/21/12 2:38 PM EST
The New York Times reports on a terse exchange that President Obama had with the late Steve Jobs last February over why Apple couldn't produce its products in America:
But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?
Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.
Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.
Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.
It's not the first run-in between the blunt Apple cofounder and the president — Jobs' biography reported that he told Obama that he's "headed for a one-term presidency," partially because of his administration's business policies. According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, he expressed admiration for Chinese business practices and decried U.S. regulations and labor rules.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/obama-spars-with-steve-jobs-over-apple-outsourcing-111751.html
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Obama sparred with Steve Jobs over outsourcing
By BYRON TAU | 1/21/12 2:38 PM EST
The New York Times reports on a terse exchange that President Obama had with the late Steve Jobs last February over why Apple couldn't produce its products in America:
But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?
Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.
Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.
Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.
It's not the first run-in between the blunt Apple cofounder and the president — Jobs' biography reported that he told Obama that he's "headed for a one-term presidency," partially because of his administration's business policies. According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, he expressed admiration for Chinese business practices and decried U.S. regulations and labor rules.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/obama-spars-with-steve-jobs-over-apple-outsourcing-111751.html
Apple supports slave labor that occurs over at Foxconn where their stuff is now made is the reason Obama sparred with Jobs over outsourcing. Outsourcing your products to people working 17 hour shifts for 31 cents a day not being able to leave the compound isn't the proper way of doing business.....its just wrong
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Did you not read the article?
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This was in the NYT asshole!
I can show you a lot from the NYT that a lot of CTers use to support their beliefs. NYT still accurate?
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I can show you a lot from the NYT that a lot of CTers use to support their beliefs. NYT still accurate?
Lets see - on the one hand we have a record of obama bein g an economic illiterate the likes we have never seen before, and the other Steve Jobs.
You tell me who you believe.
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wow...this is guy has no hope.. he understood nothing of what i posted above. I thought it was pretty clear
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Lets see - on the one hand we have a record of obama bein g an economic illiterate the likes we have never seen before, and the other Steve Jobs.
You tell me who you believe.
actually, we have anonymous 2nd hand heresay from a dead man, right?
Did jobs say "Those jobs aren't coming back" on tape?
no. we don't know if it's true or not. Could be a complete lie. Dude is selling a book and using the unproven words of a popular dead guy to do so. Hmmmmm
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wow...this is guy has no hope.. he understood nothing of what i posted above. I thought it was pretty clear
you actually summarized it perfectly. rolling standard of proof.
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actually, we have anonymous 2nd hand heresay from a dead man, right?
Did jobs say "Those jobs aren't coming back" on tape?
no. we don't know if it's true or not. Could be a complete lie. Dude is selling a book and using the unproven words of a popular dead guy to do so. Hmmmmm
you kneepader.. how dare you ask for proof!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITs anti Obama so who gives a shit about the source of the statement and that it cant be proved. Just go with it!!!!!!!!!!
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wow...this is guy has no hope.. he understood nothing of what i posted above. I thought it was pretty clear
LOL. Yeah no hope, got it chief. Hope and Change buddy.
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you kneepader.. how dare you ask for proof!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITs anti Obama so who gives a shit about the source of the statement and that it cant be proved. Just go with it!!!!!!!!!!
Well, a lot of people were at the lunch, so lets see how many contradict this story.
Just a hint - dont hold your breath waiting for it, because we all know obama is as fucking dumb and economically illiterate as i have told you morons from day 1.
But go fawn over that idiot signing for the brainwashed liberal blacks at the Apollo. Yeah real smart.
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Wow. I thought an esq would understand that, it’s pretty simple. I overestimate your depth.
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Well, a lot of people were at the lunch, so lets see how many contradict this story.
wait a minute - you expect us to PROVE A NEGATIVE?
You are saying it's on obama to gather witnesses to say "I heard every word of this conversation, and i never heard this sentence' ?
LMAO.... you have zero proof, except for anonymous quotes from a guy selling a book where he is using the words of the top 5 popular people of our generation - who is dead.
unreal.
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http://www.manufacturingdigital.com/lean/why-does-apple-make-the-iphone-in-china-and-not-the-us
Several electronics manufacturers, in particular Apple, have been criticised for using contractors abroad to produce their products despite concerns over human rights and working conditions. However, a new report from the New York Times reveals the reasons why the maker of the iPhone and iPad chooses to manufacturer away from home.
The report is based on interviews from more than three dozen current and former Apple employees and contractors, many of whom wished to remain anonymous. The sources reveal that even though contractors including Foxconn are considerably cheaper than those in the US, other factors including flexibility, assembly speed and the surrounding local supply chain are extremely advantageous.
One excerpt details how Steve Jobs was frustrated with the amount of scratches on his prototype iPhone. To a handful of fellow employees Jobs said "I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks," a demand which could be met in China, but not in the US.
With a redesigned component, a foreman at a Chinese factory woke-up 8,000 workers, gave them a biscuit and a cup of tea and within half an hour, a 12-hour shift to fit new glass screens had begun. Within 96 hours, the facility was producing more than 10,000 iPhones. "The speed and flexibility is breathtaking," a former executive said. "There's no American plant that can match that."
While this passage does little to ease concerns over the unfair conditions contract employees have to work under, it is clear to see why Apple won't manufacturer in the US. However, Foxconn have disputed the above story and Apple refused to comment.
Other stand-out figures in the article suggest it would take as long as nine months to find 8,700 industrial engineers to make the iPhone in the US, whereas in China it would take 15 days. Jennifer Rigoni, Apple's Worldwide Supply Demand Manager until 2010 said Foxconn “could hire 3,000 people overnight.”
Even if President Obama wants America's biggest manufacturers to bring more jobs home by offering competitive tax incentives, Apple will still be dependent on China's flexible labour market and comprehensive supply chain to maintain its dominant market position.
http://www.manufacturingdigital.com/lean/why-does-apple-make-the-iphone-in-china-and-not-the-us
Its not just the labor costs.
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http://www.manufacturingdigital.com/lean/why-does-apple-make-the-iphone-in-china-and-not-the-us
Several electronics manufacturers, in particular Apple, have been criticised for using contractors abroad to produce their products despite concerns over human rights and working conditions. However, a new report from the New York Times reveals the reasons why the maker of the iPhone and iPad chooses to manufacturer away from home.
The report is based on interviews from more than three dozen current and former Apple employees and contractors, many of whom wished to remain anonymous. The sources reveal that even though contractors including Foxconn are considerably cheaper than those in the US, other factors including flexibility, assembly speed and the surrounding local supply chain are extremely advantageous.
One excerpt details how Steve Jobs was frustrated with the amount of scratches on his prototype iPhone. To a handful of fellow employees Jobs said "I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks," a demand which could be met in China, but not in the US.
With a redesigned component, a foreman at a Chinese factory woke-up 8,000 workers, gave them a biscuit and a cup of tea and within half an hour, a 12-hour shift to fit new glass screens had begun. Within 96 hours, the facility was producing more than 10,000 iPhones. "The speed and flexibility is breathtaking," a former executive said. "There's no American plant that can match that."
While this passage does little to ease concerns over the unfair conditions contract employees have to work under, it is clear to see why Apple won't manufacturer in the US. However, Foxconn have disputed the above story and Apple refused to comment.
Other stand-out figures in the article suggest it would take as long as nine months to find 8,700 industrial engineers to make the iPhone in the US, whereas in China it would take 15 days. Jennifer Rigoni, Apple's Worldwide Supply Demand Manager until 2010 said Foxconn “could hire 3,000 people overnight.”
Even if President Obama wants America's biggest manufacturers to bring more jobs home by offering competitive tax incentives, Apple will still be dependent on China's flexible labour market and comprehensive supply chain to maintain its dominant market position.
http://www.manufacturingdigital.com/lean/why-does-apple-make-the-iphone-in-china-and-not-the-us
Its not just the labor costs.
You're a dum ass if you actually believe. There are plenty of engineers here in the U.S and they are widely available along with plenty of labor. Apple uses foreign labor because its cheap and they don't have to worry about following human rights
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Foxconn has literally thousands manufacturing employees basically living at work in company dormitories. To make sudden or necessary changes in a manufacturing process, they can wake up thousands of employees in the middle of the night and order them to the assembly line. 12 hour work days are not atypical. Can any American manufacturing company compete with that? Typical Foxconn workers are said to be Associate degree type workers; better than high school but not quite a bachelors.
Can any American worker compete with that? How? Would American workers be willing to live and work in that kind of environment? If that is the standard in China—and it is—manufacturing jobs for those kinds of electronics are never coming back to the US.
If and when China ramps up automobile manufacturing it is just a matter of time before all car makers shift their operations to China. Many years ago Mexico passed a law: in order to sell a car in Mexico it must be manufactured in Mexico. Can anyone imagine the US passing a law like that?
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Why Steve Jobs Said: 'I'm Disappointed in Obama'
Townhall.com ^ | January 30, 2012 | Katie Kieffer
Two months before Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer, he told his biographer Walter Isaacson: “I’m disappointed in Obama.” President Obama disregarded Jobs while he was alive—while using Jobs’ iconic image and entrepreneurial success story to further his political interests. Now that Jobs has passed away (and is unable to defend himself), Obama continues to rip off Jobs—using him as a false poster boy for his socialist economic agenda.
Jobs was a long-term Democrat. In practice, however, Jobs was a life-long capitalist—not a socialist like Obama. Isaacson writes in his best-selling book, Steve Jobs: “Communal economics were not for him.”
Obama largely ignored Apple and dismissed Jobs’ ideas while he was alive. However, during his 2012 State of the Union address, Obama made a point of inviting Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, to sit in the First Lady’s box (along with token guests like Warren Buffett’s secretary). Obama never mentioned or honored Powell (who Jobs adored and whose persistent love enabled his work) within his speech. Instead, Obama repeatedly attacked the capitalistic tools that Jobs utilized to achieve the American dream.
If Obama truly admired and respected Jobs, why didn’t he phone Jobs to congratulate him after he launched the iPad? Isaacson says the iPad was Jobs’ “pet project.” It was the culmination of Jobs’ life-long ideas, dreams and hard work and “it embodied everything he stood for.” When Jobs was just 26-years-old, he told a classroom of Stanford students about his vision to develop a book-sized computer. When Apple finally developed the multi-touch technology needed for a tablet, he decided to utilize it for the iPhone first because “Tablets appeal to rich guys with plenty of other PCs and devices already.” Upon its 2010 launch, 15 million iPads sold in just nine months and it is considered to be “the most successful consumer product launch in history.”
Jobs “noted at dinner [on the night he publicly announced the iPad] that the president had not called him since taking office,” writes Isaacson. Obama delegated the apparently onerous task of congratulating Jobs on his historical entrepreneurial feat to his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. And Obama never made a personal visit to see Jobs in his home after he publicly announced his third and final medical leave from Apple in January of 2011; Larry Page, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton took care to pay respectful last visits.
The reason Obama initially met with Jobs was because Obama’s aids thought that the meeting “fit into [Obama’s] new emphasis on competitiveness.” Jobs initially didn’t want to meet. He felt that the President should have personally requested the meeting and he said: “I’m not going to get slotted in for a token meeting so that he can check off that he met with a CEO.” It took five days for his wife to convince him to go.
When they met for forty-five minutes at the Westin San Francisco Airport in the fall of 2010, Isaacson says Jobs advised Obama to reform education by busting up teachers unions. He also told the president that his anti-business regulations were forcing American companies to move manufacturing to China. He warned: “You’re headed for a one-term presidency.”
Jobs became passionate about trying to teach Obama how to reform his policies and foster American innovation; he set up a dinner for Obama to meet with tech CEOs. Interestingly, the president’s “shared sacrifice” staff co-opted Jobs’ menu and insisted that the dinner include an extravagant “cream pie tricked out with chocolate truffles … [because] the president liked cream pie,” writes Isaacson. (Clearly, the First Lady of Nutrition was not in attendance.)
Isaacson writes that Jobs offered job-creating advice to the President: ‘he stressed the need for more trained engineers and suggested that any foreign students who earned any engineering degree in the United States should be given a visa to stay in the country. Obama said that could be done only in the context of the “Dream Act.” … Jobs found this an annoying example of how politics can lead to paralysis. “The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done. It infuriates me, [Jobs later recalled.]”’
At the dinner, Jobs also explained to the president that the reason Apple employs hundreds of thousands of people in China is because Apple couldn’t find “30,000” qualified American engineers. Jobs (a college drop-out turned billionaire) insisted that four-year degrees were unnecessary to train the engineers he needed. While Obama did call Jobs afterward to further discuss training engineers, he didn’t take actions to follow through on their conversations in a way that satisfied Jobs before he died.
Jobs initially tried to make Apple “all-American.” For example, early on, Jobs held a global contest for Apple’s general designer and he flew to Germany to review designer Hartmut Esslinger’s proposal. He loved Esslinger’s idea to design Apple’s products with a “California global” flair and create a “born-in-America gene for Apple’s DNA.” However, Isaacson says Jobs would only hire Esslinger “on the condition that he move to California.”
Apple has consistently tried to use American workers and facilities as much as possible, but it is no longer practical given the lack of skilled workers, excessive government regulations and the 35 percent corporate income tax rate.
Apple is only profitable and successful because it currently does business in China. Without China, there would be no Apple. Contrary to popular opinion, technology companies spend more on materials than on labor overseas. For instance, rare-earths are key components to iPods and iPads that can cost up to $130 per lb. The U.S. used to lead the world in mining rare-earths through a California mine called Molycorp. However, environmental regulations sent this mine into extinction and the U.S. lost her competitive technology advantage. Today, China produces roughly 97 percent of all rare-earths.
Jobs’ instincts were capitalistic. He was not a profiteer. Nor was he into sharing or redistributing; his goal was to transform the world by producing “insanely great” products that would allow the masses (not just rich people like Obama and Buffett) to access freedom-enhancing technology. As his wife told Isaacson, “…he cares deeply about empowering humankind, the advancement of humankind and putting the right tools in their hands.”
Steve Wozniak was Jobs’ friend and initial partner in building Apple. Wozniak was the shy engineering genius behind Apple’s initial technology. However, without Jobs’ capitalistic instinct, Wozniak’s ideas would never have created a single job (even for himself). Wozniak told Isaacson, “I designed the Apple I because I wanted to give it away for free to other people.” Isaacson writes: “If it had not been for Jobs, he [Wozniak] might still be handing out schematics of his [circuit] boards for free at the back of Homebrew [tech information swap] meetings. It was Jobs who turned his ingenious ideas into a budding business.”
2011 was Apple’s last year with Jobs at the helm and Apple even outdid big oil (Exxon Mobil) in per employee profits, reports The New York Times. Profits allow businesses like Apple to create jobs, offer valuable stocks to millions of individual investors and provide millions of Americans with cutting edge technology tools like iPhones, iPods, iPads and MacBooks at the lowest possible prices. Ultimately, profit is the most powerful tool whereby businesses improve society.
In his 2012 State of the Union address, Obama promised to make things even harder for companies like Apple who are forced to do business in China, saying: “no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards [subsidizing the tax burden of smaller companies that only do business in America].”
Obama said his socialist plan of “shared sacrifice” would result in “an economy built to last” that supports “everyone who’s willing to work, and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs.”
And Obama “solved” Apple’s engineer issue by telling taxpayers to subsidize their educations: “Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need...” Meanwhile, he bullied taxpayers to subsidize costly four-year college educations: “Extend the tuition tax credit … States also need to do their part [by increasing college tuition subsidies]. Higher education can’t be a luxury—it is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.”
Obama even bragged about how he’s going to crack down on piracy; I think he should start by walking the walk. Before daring to misrepresent and mooch off Jobs by mentioning his name in the same sentence as his anti-business agenda, Obama should read Isaacson’s biography. As Gov. Mitch Daniels diplomatically said in response to Obama’s speech: “…he must know in his heart that this is not true.
President Ronald Reagan bestowed Jobs and Wozniak with America’s very first National Medal of Technology. In contrast, President Obama largely ignored Jobs’ success and advice during his lifetime and then invited Jobs’ widow to hear him attack the capitalistic system that allowed Jobs to succeed. Obama has rejected Jobs’ pro-business ideas like lowering the costs of doing business (taxes), reducing regulations and reforming education. If Jobs is looking down on earth, I’m sure he is still “disappointed in Obama.”
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Why Steve Jobs Said: 'I'm Disappointed in Obama'
Townhall.com ^ | January 30, 2012 | Katie Kieffer
Two months before Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer, he told his biographer Walter Isaacson: “I’m disappointed in Obama.” President Obama disregarded Jobs while he was alive—while using Jobs’ iconic image and entrepreneurial success story to further his political interests. Now that Jobs has passed away (and is unable to defend himself), Obama continues to rip off Jobs—using him as a false poster boy for his socialist economic agenda.
Jobs was a long-term Democrat. In practice, however, Jobs was a life-long capitalist—not a socialist like Obama. Isaacson writes in his best-selling book, Steve Jobs: “Communal economics were not for him.”
Obama largely ignored Apple and dismissed Jobs’ ideas while he was alive. However, during his 2012 State of the Union address, Obama made a point of inviting Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, to sit in the First Lady’s box (along with token guests like Warren Buffett’s secretary). Obama never mentioned or honored Powell (who Jobs adored and whose persistent love enabled his work) within his speech. Instead, Obama repeatedly attacked the capitalistic tools that Jobs utilized to achieve the American dream.
If Obama truly admired and respected Jobs, why didn’t he phone Jobs to congratulate him after he launched the iPad? Isaacson says the iPad was Jobs’ “pet project.” It was the culmination of Jobs’ life-long ideas, dreams and hard work and “it embodied everything he stood for.” When Jobs was just 26-years-old, he told a classroom of Stanford students about his vision to develop a book-sized computer. When Apple finally developed the multi-touch technology needed for a tablet, he decided to utilize it for the iPhone first because “Tablets appeal to rich guys with plenty of other PCs and devices already.” Upon its 2010 launch, 15 million iPads sold in just nine months and it is considered to be “the most successful consumer product launch in history.”
Jobs “noted at dinner [on the night he publicly announced the iPad] that the president had not called him since taking office,” writes Isaacson. Obama delegated the apparently onerous task of congratulating Jobs on his historical entrepreneurial feat to his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. And Obama never made a personal visit to see Jobs in his home after he publicly announced his third and final medical leave from Apple in January of 2011; Larry Page, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton took care to pay respectful last visits.
The reason Obama initially met with Jobs was because Obama’s aids thought that the meeting “fit into [Obama’s] new emphasis on competitiveness.” Jobs initially didn’t want to meet. He felt that the President should have personally requested the meeting and he said: “I’m not going to get slotted in for a token meeting so that he can check off that he met with a CEO.” It took five days for his wife to convince him to go.
When they met for forty-five minutes at the Westin San Francisco Airport in the fall of 2010, Isaacson says Jobs advised Obama to reform education by busting up teachers unions. He also told the president that his anti-business regulations were forcing American companies to move manufacturing to China. He warned: “You’re headed for a one-term presidency.”
Jobs became passionate about trying to teach Obama how to reform his policies and foster American innovation; he set up a dinner for Obama to meet with tech CEOs. Interestingly, the president’s “shared sacrifice” staff co-opted Jobs’ menu and insisted that the dinner include an extravagant “cream pie tricked out with chocolate truffles … [because] the president liked cream pie,” writes Isaacson. (Clearly, the First Lady of Nutrition was not in attendance.)
Isaacson writes that Jobs offered job-creating advice to the President: ‘he stressed the need for more trained engineers and suggested that any foreign students who earned any engineering degree in the United States should be given a visa to stay in the country. Obama said that could be done only in the context of the “Dream Act.” … Jobs found this an annoying example of how politics can lead to paralysis. “The president is very smart, but he kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done. It infuriates me, [Jobs later recalled.]”’
At the dinner, Jobs also explained to the president that the reason Apple employs hundreds of thousands of people in China is because Apple couldn’t find “30,000” qualified American engineers. Jobs (a college drop-out turned billionaire) insisted that four-year degrees were unnecessary to train the engineers he needed. While Obama did call Jobs afterward to further discuss training engineers, he didn’t take actions to follow through on their conversations in a way that satisfied Jobs before he died.
Jobs initially tried to make Apple “all-American.” For example, early on, Jobs held a global contest for Apple’s general designer and he flew to Germany to review designer Hartmut Esslinger’s proposal. He loved Esslinger’s idea to design Apple’s products with a “California global” flair and create a “born-in-America gene for Apple’s DNA.” However, Isaacson says Jobs would only hire Esslinger “on the condition that he move to California.”
Apple has consistently tried to use American workers and facilities as much as possible, but it is no longer practical given the lack of skilled workers, excessive government regulations and the 35 percent corporate income tax rate.
Apple is only profitable and successful because it currently does business in China. Without China, there would be no Apple. Contrary to popular opinion, technology companies spend more on materials than on labor overseas. For instance, rare-earths are key components to iPods and iPads that can cost up to $130 per lb. The U.S. used to lead the world in mining rare-earths through a California mine called Molycorp. However, environmental regulations sent this mine into extinction and the U.S. lost her competitive technology advantage. Today, China produces roughly 97 percent of all rare-earths.
Jobs’ instincts were capitalistic. He was not a profiteer. Nor was he into sharing or redistributing; his goal was to transform the world by producing “insanely great” products that would allow the masses (not just rich people like Obama and Buffett) to access freedom-enhancing technology. As his wife told Isaacson, “…he cares deeply about empowering humankind, the advancement of humankind and putting the right tools in their hands.”
Steve Wozniak was Jobs’ friend and initial partner in building Apple. Wozniak was the shy engineering genius behind Apple’s initial technology. However, without Jobs’ capitalistic instinct, Wozniak’s ideas would never have created a single job (even for himself). Wozniak told Isaacson, “I designed the Apple I because I wanted to give it away for free to other people.” Isaacson writes: “If it had not been for Jobs, he [Wozniak] might still be handing out schematics of his [circuit] boards for free at the back of Homebrew [tech information swap] meetings. It was Jobs who turned his ingenious ideas into a budding business.”
2011 was Apple’s last year with Jobs at the helm and Apple even outdid big oil (Exxon Mobil) in per employee profits, reports The New York Times. Profits allow businesses like Apple to create jobs, offer valuable stocks to millions of individual investors and provide millions of Americans with cutting edge technology tools like iPhones, iPods, iPads and MacBooks at the lowest possible prices. Ultimately, profit is the most powerful tool whereby businesses improve society.
In his 2012 State of the Union address, Obama promised to make things even harder for companies like Apple who are forced to do business in China, saying: “no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards [subsidizing the tax burden of smaller companies that only do business in America].”
Obama said his socialist plan of “shared sacrifice” would result in “an economy built to last” that supports “everyone who’s willing to work, and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs.”
And Obama “solved” Apple’s engineer issue by telling taxpayers to subsidize their educations: “Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need...” Meanwhile, he bullied taxpayers to subsidize costly four-year college educations: “Extend the tuition tax credit … States also need to do their part [by increasing college tuition subsidies]. Higher education can’t be a luxury—it is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.”
Obama even bragged about how he’s going to crack down on piracy; I think he should start by walking the walk. Before daring to misrepresent and mooch off Jobs by mentioning his name in the same sentence as his anti-business agenda, Obama should read Isaacson’s biography. As Gov. Mitch Daniels diplomatically said in response to Obama’s speech: “…he must know in his heart that this is not true.
President Ronald Reagan bestowed Jobs and Wozniak with America’s very first National Medal of Technology. In contrast, President Obama largely ignored Jobs’ success and advice during his lifetime and then invited Jobs’ widow to hear him attack the capitalistic system that allowed Jobs to succeed. Obama has rejected Jobs’ pro-business ideas like lowering the costs of doing business (taxes), reducing regulations and reforming education. If Jobs is looking down on earth, I’m sure he is still “disappointed in Obama.”
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More proof Obama is only interested in helping the country if it rolls with his wants and his ideology - he'd rather watch the country burn than be forced to compromise his stupid "vision"
Isaacson writes that Jobs offered job-creating advice to the President: ‘he stressed the need for more trained engineers and suggested that any foreign students who earned any engineering degree in the United States should be given a visa to stay in the country. Obama said that could be done only in the context of the “Dream Act.
What a piece of shit. Insinuating the only way it would only happen if we passed one of his piece of shit bills. ::) ::)