maestro64

tzm41 said:

The Hong Kong legislature is the prime example of putting profits over values. They are almost useless for passing laws and regulations to protect the mass from the oligarchs, who control land supply, housing price, and profit distribution... Like Li Ka-shing basically robbed the dream out of all Hong Kongers, and now he moved away with his money.

I personally believe what we are seeing in Hong Kong is more about what you pointed out than anything else. HK has business owners and working class two distinctly different classes of people. Keep in mind HK was a trading port for a long time, things were made in mainland china and move through HK to points world wide. Those who managed the trade made all the profits, Over many year HK imported people from all over the world to serve those who drive the trade business and they are now seeing they have no future and that future will be far worse once mainland China rolls around the border in 30 yrs. Those with money when this happen will be fine and everyone else will loose.

CloudTalkin said:

lkrupp said:

CloudTalkin said:

lkrupp said:

Another huge failure for Apple. So where are the Samsung ads making fun of AirPod users?

C'mon man.  Give the persecution complex a rest for at least one thread.   Sweet Jeebus.

On topic:  If Munster has lost 10 pair and a charging case, the issue is Munster more so than the AirPod.  He needs to invest in those cheap straps.

Oh, so you’re saying that Apple is not the target of unceasing, malicious persecution from battalions of tech and financial writers who twist, spin, and mold everything Apple into a negative just to get clicks? 

No, what I'm asking is for you to give it rest... at least for a single thread.  I thought that was pretty clear.  You enter almost every thread with the same woe is me tale of someone attacking the precious.  You never contribute positively to any thread you enter.  No general knowledge, no interesting anecdote, no humorous aside, no perfectly timed "well actually" [pushes up glasses] - who doesn't like to correct their fellow man, no hmmm, I did not know that... nothing except the same tired refrain of OMG somebody somewhere at some point said something about Apple that wasn't 100% flattering.  

Take this article for instance.  There's nothing in it disparaging Apple or the AirPods.  It's simple a collection of anecdotal tidbits about the tribulations of using AirPods in the crowded NYC subway system with a bonus splash of Gene Munster weirdness.  Nothing connected to this article even suggests a failure by Apple.  Yet you've found a way to make the claim. Why? And yes, I am saying Apple is not the target of unceasing malicious persecution.  That's nothing more that excessive hyperbole.  Are there articles written that are negative about Apple?  Yeah sure there are.  Criticize them until the cows come home. But grinding every thread with the somebody's picking on Apple meme... that's an lkrupp thing, not an Apple thing.  Even in comments where you're trying to compliment Apple you can't seem to stop yourself from taking a dig at some perceived slight from some imaginary foe.  By all means, you do you.  Just sayin', some new material every now and then would be really appreciated.

Some people just go through life being negative and pessimistic. As studies have shown if you can not see thing positively and only negatively it will have adverse effect on their life. The rest of us will live our full life and the naysayers will have less than full life. 

wallym said:

Meh.  A lot of this stuff is awesome once you have cash coming on a continual basis.  the problem is when you don't have cash coming in regularly, or enough of it.  I work in the startup area as well as consulting.  Life has taught me one thing in this area, take care of the customer.  If you take care and focus on the customer, then you create value for all.  If you focus on just the shareholder, you don't create value for anyone long term.  Sears, IBM, and GE are current examples of companies that have focused too much on the shareholder, and all of their businesses have seen a significant downturn.  

Except when you need capital to expand your business and the shareholder refuse to show up to back your business. Ask all your customers to finance your grow and expect nothing in return other than you will treat them well. I worked in startup as well and I seen wall street tear companies apart trying to make them jump through ratio dog hoops and the company loose focus on the customer who pay the daily bills. The problem is Wall Street is not the real investors and most CEO seem to forget this.

Apple can jump on this now since they have more cash than anything else, they no longer have to worry about investors and the capital they bring to party. As the saying going as long as you are using other people's money they get to decide how you spend that money. You can not take other people's money and then ignore them. 

Long term this will be bad for competition, thus the reason you are seeing all the big companies jumping on this. If investors/venture capitalist think they will not have a front and only seat at the show, they will not bring their resources to new companies looking to get off the ground and grow. It is going to be very hard to have startups who can not be focus on those who give them money and all about everything else for everyone else.


I personal always felt Apple did best by the customers first and for most and investors came second, just from the fact Steve use to give Wall Street the finger and would not do what Wall Street wanted short term. This approach all most killed Apple a couple times so Apple was lucky ignoring those who chose to invest in the company.

Folks, I worked in the large corporate world for a long time and been part of the internal discussion around many of these initiatives. Yes Apple tends to be the better example of trying to do the right things for the right reasons in most people's minds. However, most if it is driven by profits and Apple in may cases is no different. Apple is one of the few companies who can sell a product on the value it brings to people not what it cost to buy. Otherwise, they would be on the other end of the scale. BTW who is FairPhone?

As an example the reality of Apple auditing Chinese companies labor practice is because Apple could not afford the bad publicity (oh the children), otherwise, they would not care. Plus the Chinese government should fix labor issue in their country.

I have shared this before, believe it or not, China has very similar labor laws as the rest of the developing world. But the Chinese government does not enforce them.  In the US if a company is found breaking labor laws, the government step in and fines them and/or takes other actions. You do not see media attracting non-US companies who happen to be using a US companies to get them to fix the problem.  In China when the media uncovers suspect labor practices the Chinese government notifies all the non-Chinese companies using the suspect company and tell them they are violating Chinese laws and the non-Chinese companies has to fix the problem. The Non-Chinese companies comes in does their audits find violations and tells the Chinese companies to fix the problem. The Chinese companies turns around and say they will fix the labor issue but the non-Chinese company will have to pay more for labor to make the problem go away. This is how the Chinese government got labor wages to increase and make everyone outside China to pay for it.

Greenpease would like to take responsibility for what Apple did, however, Steve made it very clear Apple will make changes when it made sense. Apple was not going to put consumers at disadvantage just to meet some artificially un-realist goal Greenpease had come up with. Which good for consumers, it is easy to be Greenpease to sit around and talk about all that is wrong and does not have the ability to find a solution.

Folks, you may like what Apple has done and you think this all good, but it is not stopping with just the things Apple is doing with products. A good friend of mine was just offered a job with fairly new company with office all over the US who is growing rapidly. The offer was decent not great considering the times and job requirements. However, they made it clear in their travel policy they will only reimburse for vegan meals since they feel eating meat is unhealth both for your body and the environment (cow farts). They will also pay full health benefits for just the employee if you are vegan, otherwise you have to pay a portion. This company is not a health or environment based company they are just imposing their ideology onto their work force. Image if Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook began doing this. We are hearing Google is starting to imposing their politically beliefs to their work force.