This is Apple trying to make up for ineffective and incompetent state government. This money will fall into the same black hole as federal funds meant to improve CA's roads and infrastructure, and money meant to help PG&E keep the lights on.
If you drive up the I280 corridor from San Jose to San Francisco, past Stanford, you can see acres and acres of undeveloped land within a 15 minute commute of Apple. Various state and local regulations prevent this land from being developed. Until the regulatory framework of California changes, nothing will improve.
I tend to agree with those who view this as a waste of shareholder funds.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
Missing sarcasm tag or more living in the deep end of delusion?
Quite telling that your type don’t want the government to help the poorer classes, and now you’re whining when non-government decides to help. “Corporations are people too, friend” - if that was true when GOPer Romney said it, why isn’t it now? Should people be free to give what they wish? Don’t like it, don’t invest. Sell and find a person who closer aligns to your miserly preferences.
Because he understands economics. And economics says that throwing more money at the problem will only exacerbate it.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I think the vast majority of it is loans and leases where Apple is repaid, perhaps even profits. Very little of it is in the form of grants.
According to their press release, $1 billion of the total (which is not the vast majority) is “mortgage assistance”... in other words, Apple is engaging in the same mentality that contributed to the housing market collapse which crashed the economy in 2008. To be brutally honest, this looks like Tim Cook misappropriating funds from Apple using the cover of “charity” to prime the pump for his political ambitions:
$1 billion first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund: Working with the state, this first-time homebuyer fund will provide aspiring homebuyers with financing and down payment assistance. Apple and the state will explore strategies to increase access to first-time homeownership opportunities for essential service personnel, school employees and veterans.
Also agree with those saying Chinese investment has jacked up the housing prices, effectively pricing Americans out of the American dream.
It's not just Chinese investment. I know plenty of people here in Toronto who aren't Chinese and own a couple of properties. It's a smart investment to buy property if you have the money to do so, it's just the effect of investors (of any nationality) trying to cash in on a boom which isn't great. It drives up the overall prices and, at the first sign of economic downturn, they're rushing to cash out. Which causes the bottom to fall out of a market (like what happened in 2008). People who actually live in the property they own (and aren't relying on subsidies to afford it) tend not to jump ship quickly like that, which softens the blow of an economic downturn. Plus it has the additional benefit of creating thriving communities instead of wastelands of empty boxes (as many condo buildings were here in Toronto before housing reforms).
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I think the vast majority of it is loans and leases where Apple is repaid, perhaps even profits. Very little of it is in the form of grants.
According to their press release, $1 billion of the total (which is not the vast majority) is “mortgage assistance”... in other words, Apple is engaging in the same mentality that contributed to the housing market collapse which crashed the economy in 2008. To be brutally honest, this looks like Tim Cook misappropriating funds from Apple using the cover of “charity” to prime the pump for his political ambitions:
$1 billion first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund: Working with the state, this first-time homebuyer fund will provide aspiring homebuyers with financing and down payment assistance. Apple and the state will explore strategies to increase access to first-time homeownership opportunities for essential service personnel, school employees and veterans.
Also agree with those saying Chinese investment has jacked up the housing prices, effectively pricing Americans out of the American dream.
It's not just Chinese investment. I know plenty of people here in Toronto who aren't Chinese and own a couple of properties. It's a smart investment to buy property if you have the money to do so, it's just the effect of investors (of any nationality) trying to cash in on a boom which isn't great. It drives up the overall prices and, at the first sign of economic downturn, they're rushing to cash out. Which causes the bottom to fall out of a market (like what happened in 2008). People who actually live in the property they own (and aren't relying on subsidies to afford it) tend not to jump ship quickly like that, which softens the blow of an economic downturn. Plus it has the additional benefit of creating thriving communities instead of wastelands of empty boxes.
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
I too know plenty of people who own multiple properties and aren’t Chinese, but I don’t know any of them buying entire neighborhoods of new construction with government funds. Multiple realtors in the local area have told me they knocked hundreds of doors in the neighborhood that went up next to me, and nearly all of them were Chinese nationals. Condos here start at $1M and cookie cutter homes can go up to $5M (the actual value should be half of those figures). We also have a birth tourism problem here, with multiple raids and arrests taking place in recent years (just Google birth tourism Irvine). China limits foreign investment in their country but we haven’t been smart enough to do the same, and PBOC is state-owned. Assuming the same thing is happening in Northern California, Apple’s $2.5B investment will not be enough to counter this trend.
Great, more homes for the Chinese to snap up so they can launder their ill-begotten money. I live in Palo Alto; every house up for sale is bought by a Chinese national. Most are empty much of the year.
Bingo! (aside from the racism) The trick to solving housing crisis is to deincentivize the buying of property as investments. Regardless of whether it's foreign or domestic investing (there's plenty of ill-begotten money in the US too).
Make it easy to buy one property that you're going to actually live in, but heavily restrict and tax the buying of multiple properties or pure investment properties. People love to blame the workers who move to an area for jobs for increased housing costs (be it coders as it is in the Bay Area, factory workers as it was in Detroit in the 40s and 50s, etc), but the real problem is the vulture investors who take advantage of the increased demand by snapping up a bunch of property in the area to profit from it. That's the true antisocial (anti societal) behaviour here. What kind of communities does empty houses and people living in cars create?
Your intent is noble but that would be very bad policy. In the end it would result in a much tighter rental market, with the only people getting into investing in housing the larger commercial enterprises at the medium and higher tiers, leaving the lower tiers to either government public housing (read slum towers a la UK) or corporates getting breaks from government to do the same thing. In other words deliver exactly the problem you are trying to solve.
what you need is the opposite. Fewer Regs that mean it is easier for Mum and dad investors can get into housing as an investment. They are the owners concentrated at the smaller end of the rental market. You need to encourage them, not make it harder.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I think the vast majority of it is loans and leases where Apple is repaid, perhaps even profits. Very little of it is in the form of grants.
According to their press release, $1 billion of the total (which is not the vast majority) is “mortgage assistance”... in other words, Apple is engaging in the same mentality that contributed to the housing market collapse which crashed the economy in 2008. To be brutally honest, this looks like Tim Cook misappropriating funds from Apple using the cover of “charity” to prime the pump for his political ambitions:
$1 billion first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund: Working with the state, this first-time homebuyer fund will provide aspiring homebuyers with financing and down payment assistance. Apple and the state will explore strategies to increase access to first-time homeownership opportunities for essential service personnel, school employees and veterans.
Also agree with those saying Chinese investment has jacked up the housing prices, effectively pricing Americans out of the American dream.
It's not just Chinese investment. I know plenty of people here in Toronto who aren't Chinese and own a couple of properties. It's a smart investment to buy property if you have the money to do so, it's just the effect of investors (of any nationality) trying to cash in on a boom which isn't great. It drives up the overall prices and, at the first sign of economic downturn, they're rushing to cash out. Which causes the bottom to fall out of a market (like what happened in 2008). People who actually live in the property they own (and aren't relying on subsidies to afford it) tend not to jump ship quickly like that, which softens the blow of an economic downturn. Plus it has the additional benefit of creating thriving communities instead of wastelands of empty boxes.
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
I too know plenty of people who own multiple properties and aren’t Chinese, but I don’t know any of them buying entire neighborhoods of new construction with government funds. Multiple realtors in the local area have told me they knocked hundreds of doors in the neighborhood that went up next to me, and nearly all of them were Chinese nationals. Condos here start at $1M and cookie cutter homes can go up to $5M (the actual value should be half of those figures). We also have a birth tourism problem here, with multiple raids and arrests taking place in recent years (just Google birth tourism Irvine). China limits foreign investment in their country but we haven’t been smart enough to do the same, and PBOC is state-owned. Assuming the same thing is happening in Northern California, Apple’s $2.5B investment will not be enough to counter this trend.
The smaller investors are doing the exact same thing as the bigger investors, but on a smaller scale. They're all driving up the cost of homes beyond what the market would normally have it at. Curtailing foreign investment is a good start, as we did here in Ontario by adding a 15% foreign investment tax and other reforms, but it won't stop the problem completely. There are people in the US who have (or will eventually have) that same kind of money and inevitably play the game the same way. It's the logical outcome of a system which rewards that behaviour.
Great, more homes for the Chinese to snap up so they can launder their ill-begotten money. I live in Palo Alto; every house up for sale is bought by a Chinese national. Most are empty much of the year.
Bingo! (aside from the racism) The trick to solving housing crisis is to deincentivize the buying of property as investments. Regardless of whether it's foreign or domestic investing (there's plenty of ill-begotten money in the US too).
Make it easy to buy one property that you're going to actually live in, but heavily restrict and tax the buying of multiple properties or pure investment properties. People love to blame the workers who move to an area for jobs for increased housing costs (be it coders as it is in the Bay Area, factory workers as it was in Detroit in the 40s and 50s, etc), but the real problem is the vulture investors who take advantage of the increased demand by snapping up a bunch of property in the area to profit from it. That's the true antisocial (anti societal) behaviour here. What kind of communities does empty houses and people living in cars create?
Your intent is noble but that would be very bad policy. In the end it would result in a much tighter rental market, with the only people getting into investing in housing the larger commercial enterprises at the medium and higher tiers, leaving the lower tiers to either government public housing (read slum towers a la UK) or corporates getting breaks from government to do the same thing. In other words deliver exactly the problem you are trying to solve.
what you need is the opposite. Fewer Regs that mean it is easier for Mum and dad investors can get into housing as an investment. They are the owners concentrated at the smaller end of the rental market. You need to encourage them, not make it harder.
Do you honestly think it's only the mom and pop investors who are buying multiple homes? That there are no big real estate speculators from, say, cities like New York or LA who are looking for real estate hot spots to invest in (no difference from those Chinese nationals)?
Also, many people were keeping homes vacant here in Toronto because, as soon as you start renting them out, they become income properties and so you have to pay tax on the money you make when you sell them. Whereas, if you keep them vacant, you don't. So they weren't helping the rental market at all.
Honestly, it would be so much better if all of the properties were at the true value which the local market can bear. The cheaper properties would become cheap enough for even lower middle class families to afford. And the very low income folks would be covered by apartment buildings and small amounts of subsidized housing. Which, admittedly, might not be great housing, but that's the reality at that level. Obviously people living on the streets (no income) won't be covered, but that's a very different problem from housing (i.e. how you deal with mental illness and addiction in society).
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I think the vast majority of it is loans and leases where Apple is repaid, perhaps even profits. Very little of it is in the form of grants.
According to their press release, $1 billion of the total (which is not the vast majority) is “mortgage assistance”... in other words, Apple is engaging in the same mentality that contributed to the housing market collapse which crashed the economy in 2008. To be brutally honest, this looks like Tim Cook misappropriating funds from Apple using the cover of “charity” to prime the pump for his political ambitions:
$1 billion first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund: Working with the state, this first-time homebuyer fund will provide aspiring homebuyers with financing and down payment assistance. Apple and the state will explore strategies to increase access to first-time homeownership opportunities for essential service personnel, school employees and veterans.
Also agree with those saying Chinese investment has jacked up the housing prices, effectively pricing Americans out of the American dream.
It's not just Chinese investment. I know plenty of people here in Toronto who aren't Chinese and own a couple of properties. It's a smart investment to buy property if you have the money to do so, it's just the effect of investors (of any nationality) trying to cash in on a boom which isn't great. It drives up the overall prices and, at the first sign of economic downturn, they're rushing to cash out. Which causes the bottom to fall out of a market (like what happened in 2008). People who actually live in the property they own (and aren't relying on subsidies to afford it) tend not to jump ship quickly like that, which softens the blow of an economic downturn. Plus it has the additional benefit of creating thriving communities instead of wastelands of empty boxes (as many condo buildings were here in Toronto before housing reforms).
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
To the contrary, there should be booms and busts without intervention or bailouts by governments. People respond to incentives.The housing market should be no different from stocks or any other investment. Smart investors will generally gain over the long-term, but opportunities for property flippers are also part of the supply/demand equation and opportunities for profit should remain.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I think the vast majority of it is loans and leases where Apple is repaid, perhaps even profits. Very little of it is in the form of grants.
According to their press release, $1 billion of the total (which is not the vast majority) is “mortgage assistance”... in other words, Apple is engaging in the same mentality that contributed to the housing market collapse which crashed the economy in 2008. To be brutally honest, this looks like Tim Cook misappropriating funds from Apple using the cover of “charity” to prime the pump for his political ambitions:
$1 billion first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund: Working with the state, this first-time homebuyer fund will provide aspiring homebuyers with financing and down payment assistance. Apple and the state will explore strategies to increase access to first-time homeownership opportunities for essential service personnel, school employees and veterans.
Also agree with those saying Chinese investment has jacked up the housing prices, effectively pricing Americans out of the American dream.
It's not just Chinese investment. I know plenty of people here in Toronto who aren't Chinese and own a couple of properties. It's a smart investment to buy property if you have the money to do so, it's just the effect of investors (of any nationality) trying to cash in on a boom which isn't great. It drives up the overall prices and, at the first sign of economic downturn, they're rushing to cash out. Which causes the bottom to fall out of a market (like what happened in 2008). People who actually live in the property they own (and aren't relying on subsidies to afford it) tend not to jump ship quickly like that, which softens the blow of an economic downturn. Plus it has the additional benefit of creating thriving communities instead of wastelands of empty boxes (as many condo buildings were here in Toronto before housing reforms).
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
To the contrary, there should be booms and busts without intervention or bailouts by governments. People respond to incentives.The housing market should be no different from stocks or any other investment. Smart investors will generally gain over the long-term, but opportunities for property flippers are also part of the supply/demand equation and opportunities cannot
I'm not talking about bailouts. I'm simply talking about introducing regulations to the housing market to allow more people to get into it, as well as protect people from the artificial effects of housing market schemes and scams by speculators and investors. Who, in conjunction with the Bush government, I consider to be responsible for the 2008 housing market crash. Sure there are going to be times where a genuine economic downturn occurs in an area and people are forced to move and/or downsize. But that's very different from what I'm talking about here.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I think the vast majority of it is loans and leases where Apple is repaid, perhaps even profits. Very little of it is in the form of grants.
According to their press release, $1 billion of the total (which is not the vast majority) is “mortgage assistance”... in other words, Apple is engaging in the same mentality that contributed to the housing market collapse which crashed the economy in 2008. To be brutally honest, this looks like Tim Cook misappropriating funds from Apple using the cover of “charity” to prime the pump for his political ambitions:
$1 billion first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund: Working with the state, this first-time homebuyer fund will provide aspiring homebuyers with financing and down payment assistance. Apple and the state will explore strategies to increase access to first-time homeownership opportunities for essential service personnel, school employees and veterans.
Also agree with those saying Chinese investment has jacked up the housing prices, effectively pricing Americans out of the American dream.
It's not just Chinese investment. I know plenty of people here in Toronto who aren't Chinese and own a couple of properties. It's a smart investment to buy property if you have the money to do so, it's just the effect of investors (of any nationality) trying to cash in on a boom which isn't great. It drives up the overall prices and, at the first sign of economic downturn, they're rushing to cash out. Which causes the bottom to fall out of a market (like what happened in 2008). People who actually live in the property they own (and aren't relying on subsidies to afford it) tend not to jump ship quickly like that, which softens the blow of an economic downturn. Plus it has the additional benefit of creating thriving communities instead of wastelands of empty boxes (as many condo buildings were here in Toronto before housing reforms).
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
To the contrary, there should be booms and busts without intervention or bailouts by governments. People respond to incentives.The housing market should be no different from stocks or any other investment. Smart investors will generally gain over the long-term, but opportunities for property flippers are also part of the supply/demand equation and opportunities cannot
I'm not talking about bailouts. I'm simply talking about introducing regulations to the housing market to allow more people to get into it, as well as protect people from the artificial effects of housing market schemes and scams by speculators and investors. Who, in conjunction with the Bush government, I consider to be responsible for the 2008 housing market crash. Sure there are going to be times where a genuine economic downturn occurs in an area and people are forced to move and/or downsize. But that's very different from what I'm talking about here.
“...regulations to the housing market to allow more people to get into it...” describes the exact thinking that led up to the global real estate crash, aka the “Great Recession”. When you intervene into functioning markets (where there are seemingly irrational price fluctuations) you are playing with fire. Prices need to be able to find their “correct” level by discovery. In other words, there are at least two sides to every deal... buyers and sellers. When voluntary transactions are NOT allowed to play out, markets (and people) no longer know the real value of things. Resources are misallocated.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I think the vast majority of it is loans and leases where Apple is repaid, perhaps even profits. Very little of it is in the form of grants.
According to their press release, $1 billion of the total (which is not the vast majority) is “mortgage assistance”... in other words, Apple is engaging in the same mentality that contributed to the housing market collapse which crashed the economy in 2008. To be brutally honest, this looks like Tim Cook misappropriating funds from Apple using the cover of “charity” to prime the pump for his political ambitions:
$1 billion first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund: Working with the state, this first-time homebuyer fund will provide aspiring homebuyers with financing and down payment assistance. Apple and the state will explore strategies to increase access to first-time homeownership opportunities for essential service personnel, school employees and veterans.
Also agree with those saying Chinese investment has jacked up the housing prices, effectively pricing Americans out of the American dream.
It's not just Chinese investment. I know plenty of people here in Toronto who aren't Chinese and own a couple of properties. It's a smart investment to buy property if you have the money to do so, it's just the effect of investors (of any nationality) trying to cash in on a boom which isn't great. It drives up the overall prices and, at the first sign of economic downturn, they're rushing to cash out. Which causes the bottom to fall out of a market (like what happened in 2008). People who actually live in the property they own (and aren't relying on subsidies to afford it) tend not to jump ship quickly like that, which softens the blow of an economic downturn. Plus it has the additional benefit of creating thriving communities instead of wastelands of empty boxes (as many condo buildings were here in Toronto before housing reforms).
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
To the contrary, there should be booms and busts without intervention or bailouts by governments. People respond to incentives.The housing market should be no different from stocks or any other investment. Smart investors will generally gain over the long-term, but opportunities for property flippers are also part of the supply/demand equation and opportunities cannot
I'm not talking about bailouts. I'm simply talking about introducing regulations to the housing market to allow more people to get into it, as well as protect people from the artificial effects of housing market schemes and scams by speculators and investors. Who, in conjunction with the Bush government, I consider to be responsible for the 2008 housing market crash. Sure there are going to be times where a genuine economic downturn occurs in an area and people are forced to move and/or downsize. But that's very different from what I'm talking about here.
You must not have read the full report on the cause of the housing crisis. Plenty of blame there for Bill Clinton, for signing the law that would've prevented the housing crisis in the first place and for Barney Frank for using his influence to pressure lenders into making risky loans to unqualified buyers. The Bush administration actually raised the alarms prior to the crisis and were called demagogues for suggesting that less-than-qualified buyers should not receive loans.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I read Tim's quote in Steve's voice and I honestly believe he would have fully supported the actions Tim is setting in motion. This is absolutely the Apple culture that Steve developed and Tim is doing a great job maintaining.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I read Tim's quote in Steve's voice and I honestly believe he would have fully supported the actions Tim is setting in motion. This is absolutely the Apple culture that Steve developed and Tim is doing a great job maintaining.
He’s misallocating shareholder funds and I’m quite confident this will result in a class-action lawsuit against Cook and Apple.
Cook has millions of his own money to spend how he wishes. Instead he uses Other People’s’ Money.
This is the point: there is an endless list of worthy causes, some more worthy than others. Where should the line be drawn on the worthiness scale?.The simpler approach is to be philanthropic with your own money, not OPM. The Other People have had no say in it.
It is sad to see many of the tech companies with world wide operations vacuuming up $£millions and £$millions to the detriment of citizens who inevitably pay the price through poorer quality or complete loss of vital social services. Communities already cash-strapped from a severe lack of locally available employment opportunities as cheaper and cheaper labour costs are sought in third world economic countries. The criminality of the banking industry became a burden for less well off citizens charged to prop up failed capitalist ideologies. Governments continue to use their citizens to pay off the massive debts created by unregulated bank activities. Through all of this misery, industrial giants have evolved into disgusting monstrosities employing every trick in the book to minimise their corporate and personal tax contributions. Claiming to pay exactly what tax they are legally obliged to pay is not a defence as the knock on effect is indefensible. While a few thousand individuals bob to the surface billions splutter and drown below for want of uncontaminated food, clean water and safe housing.
This Apple is not the Apple envisioned by Jobs, Wozniak or their earliest customers, amongst whom I count myself. They are now everything the 1984 advertisement railed against.
It's a nice gesture but it won't work. The biggest problem California has is terrible, horrendous policies enacted by liberal-progressive-socialist officials that Californians keep electing. Cali is reaping what it sowed. Quite sad to watch. Oh, and if you're one of those folks fleeing California and moving here, please leave your voting habits behind.
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I read Tim's quote in Steve's voice and I honestly believe he would have fully supported the actions Tim is setting in motion. This is absolutely the Apple culture that Steve developed and Tim is doing a great job maintaining.
(Not that what Steve would have done is terribly important or relevant, but...) I don't think that's accurate. If you'll recall when Jobs was pitching his proposal for the Apple "spaceship" HQ, one of the city councilors suggested that Apple could/should provide WiFi for all of Cupertino (or some such thing). Jobs' response was that Apple is the largest tax payer in Cupertino and it's not Apple's job to provide services directly to the community; if the city wants to do that, it's a political matter and they are free to do so. Go back and find the AI article about this, I may have the details off a bit. But the gist is right: it's Apple is a tech company and not a quasi governmental organization. So I suspect that if this effort had been suggested to Steve, his response would have been along the lines of "f### that."
OK, Tim has got to go. This is the final straw. This is a blatant misuse of company funds. I think even Steve Jobs would’ve fired him on the spot. Apple is not a piggy bank for Tim (or their board of directors) to apply to any non-Apple vanity cause they want.
This is essentially stealing money from the shareholders in order to support a political agenda.
I think the vast majority of it is loans and leases where Apple is repaid, perhaps even profits. Very little of it is in the form of grants.
According to their press release, $1 billion of the total (which is not the vast majority) is “mortgage assistance”... in other words, Apple is engaging in the same mentality that contributed to the housing market collapse which crashed the economy in 2008. To be brutally honest, this looks like Tim Cook misappropriating funds from Apple using the cover of “charity” to prime the pump for his political ambitions:
$1 billion first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund: Working with the state, this first-time homebuyer fund will provide aspiring homebuyers with financing and down payment assistance. Apple and the state will explore strategies to increase access to first-time homeownership opportunities for essential service personnel, school employees and veterans.
Also agree with those saying Chinese investment has jacked up the housing prices, effectively pricing Americans out of the American dream.
It's not just Chinese investment. I know plenty of people here in Toronto who aren't Chinese and own a couple of properties. It's a smart investment to buy property if you have the money to do so, it's just the effect of investors (of any nationality) trying to cash in on a boom which isn't great. It drives up the overall prices and, at the first sign of economic downturn, they're rushing to cash out. Which causes the bottom to fall out of a market (like what happened in 2008). People who actually live in the property they own (and aren't relying on subsidies to afford it) tend not to jump ship quickly like that, which softens the blow of an economic downturn. Plus it has the additional benefit of creating thriving communities instead of wastelands of empty boxes (as many condo buildings were here in Toronto before housing reforms).
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
To the contrary, there should be booms and busts without intervention or bailouts by governments. People respond to incentives.The housing market should be no different from stocks or any other investment. Smart investors will generally gain over the long-term, but opportunities for property flippers are also part of the supply/demand equation and opportunities cannot
I'm not talking about bailouts. I'm simply talking about introducing regulations to the housing market to allow more people to get into it, as well as protect people from the artificial effects of housing market schemes and scams by speculators and investors. Who, in conjunction with the Bush government, I consider to be responsible for the 2008 housing market crash. Sure there are going to be times where a genuine economic downturn occurs in an area and people are forced to move and/or downsize. But that's very different from what I'm talking about here.
You must not have read the full report on the cause of the housing crisis. Plenty of blame there for Bill Clinton, for signing the law that would've prevented the housing crisis in the first place and for Barney Frank for using his influence to pressure lenders into making risky loans to unqualified buyers. The Bush administration actually raised the alarms prior to the crisis and were called demagogues for suggesting that less-than-qualified buyers should not receive loans.
It's all there in black and white.
It goes back further than that. It started under Reagan’s watch, but it got much worse under Clinton and Bush.
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If you drive up the I280 corridor from San Jose to San Francisco, past Stanford, you can see acres and acres of undeveloped land within a 15 minute commute of Apple. Various state and local regulations prevent this land from being developed. Until the regulatory framework of California changes, nothing will improve.
I tend to agree with those who view this as a waste of shareholder funds.
Leave the boom and bust cycles of investment to things which aren't essential to people's lives. Stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. The housing market shouldn't be a gambling table.
what you need is the opposite. Fewer Regs that mean it is easier for Mum and dad investors can get into housing as an investment. They are the owners concentrated at the smaller end of the rental market. You need to encourage them, not make it harder.
And yeah, I agree that Apple's investment certainly won't change that behaviour. It requires intervention from a government which is willing to take a hit on income it gets from land transfer taxes and similar.
Also, many people were keeping homes vacant here in Toronto because, as soon as you start renting them out, they become income properties and so you have to pay tax on the money you make when you sell them. Whereas, if you keep them vacant, you don't. So they weren't helping the rental market at all.
Honestly, it would be so much better if all of the properties were at the true value which the local market can bear. The cheaper properties would become cheap enough for even lower middle class families to afford. And the very low income folks would be covered by apartment buildings and small amounts of subsidized housing. Which, admittedly, might not be great housing, but that's the reality at that level. Obviously people living on the streets (no income) won't be covered, but that's a very different problem from housing (i.e. how you deal with mental illness and addiction in society).
It's all there in black and white.
This Apple is not the Apple envisioned by Jobs, Wozniak or their earliest customers, amongst whom I count myself. They are now everything the 1984 advertisement railed against.