“It’s no secret that President Barack Obama is a fan of Apple gadgets, and they are all around him: at his fingertips during a Twitter town hall, on his desk at the Oval Office and by his side en route to golf games,” Amie Parnes and Kim Hart report for Politico.
“Now, due to popular demand by aides, the White House is moving to incorporate Apple devices into its daily routine,” Parnes and Hart report. “Last month, the information technology office launched a pilot program for the Executive Office of the President that allows Apple-loving staffers to access their official email accounts on their iPads and iPhones through a secure connection.”
“Last month, when Obama left to play a round of golf at Andrews Air Force Base, he carried his iPad. And when he appeared at the White House Twitter town hall in July, he used a MacBook Pro, although the Apple symbol was covered with the presidential seal. He also has an iPod,” Parnes and Hart report. “At the White House, where nearly every image is carefully planned and executed, it is no coincidence that the president was seen carting his iPad to a golf game, observers say. Nor was it a coincidence that Obama sat beside Jobs at a dinner in Silicon Valley earlier this year.”
Advertisement: Limited Time: Students, parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.
“Obama still uses his Secret Service-approved BlackBerry instead of an iPhone. And even though he doesn’t have a computer in the Oval Office, aides said he has a Dell upstairs in his private study,” Parnes and Hart report. “Obama’s Republican presidential rivals are invoking Apple to reinforce their message about job creation — though they’ve pointed out that Apple’s products are mostly made in Asia rather than in the U.S. They say the country would benefit if Apple made its products here, creating new manufacturing jobs. ‘We need American entrepreneurs not only thinking of products like the iPhone or Segway,’ presidential candidate Jon Huntsman said in a speech on Wednesday. ‘We need American workers building those products. It’s time for ‘Made in America’ to mean something again.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
There’s a Black Barry in the White House. News to me!
MaoBama and fellow liberals SUCK. Sick group. No one will make product in the USA because the unions and liberals have destroyed the US. Capitalism and freedom have done more to bring the world out of the dark ages, caves, etc. then anything ever. You liberal scum want to back track us right into the caves. Unions are the death of the American workforce. Lazy, over paid, extremely low production, losers. Thats why jobs are over seas.
Amen!!
You need medication. Stop blaming workers. Unless you are willing to work for slave wages, why should anyone else.
Oh, we have another name-call. You ARE a smart one.
As for the rest of your argument, are you freakin’ kidding me? Where do you get this crap? Start getting some news from more than just Fox before you make yourself look like a bigger redneck moron.
We do KIAI and that’s why YOU’RE the idiot. Aren’t you gonna bring up a racism non sequiturd in the usual Demotard desperate attempt to win a losing argument? Libertards do that routinely to disingenuously quiet a room yah know. As far as Democrats “You’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and self-entitled villainy.” I belong to a private union btw. An honest union. Public unions have to change and stop allowing Democrats to use them for contributions and favors in return of outrageous pensions they are not held accountable for, we taxpayers are with little defense and control. Now.
Sorry folks, back to Apple related news & views.
You sir are a retard, the republicans were the one that pushed for tax cuts for the rich and to tax the middle class they are also creating loop wholes for big corperations because any sane person knows you can bribe a republican. All Obama is, is a push over that doesn’t compromise but gives in to the republicans. Get your facts right. Democrats are the good guys if we elect a republican the US will crumble into fine little peices, If you re-elect Obama he will just get pushe around some more. Either way the US is screwed!
Mitch = turbo commie. Nice try you moron. It’s the corporations and rich people’s money. Why the hell are you trying to make laws to “legally” steal their money. And by the way the bar keeps getting lowered for who is “rich”. You scum bags want a free lunch and hand outs from the extremely hard working, successful, crowd. Screw you. Work hard for your own GD money. If you don’t like your job find a new one somewhere else. Low lifes.
Do you have any original thoughts of your own or are you just going to vomit back the nonsense the talking heads like Limbaugh and Hannity spout out?
The middle class in America exists because of unions. The 40 hour work week exists because of unions. Occupational safety exists because of unions.
If you want to work without those things, then move to another country to work endless hours for peanuts in conditions that may kill or maim you. Otherwise shut your fascist mouth.
Damn autocorrect! “Blackberry”, not “Black Barry”!
That was a funny one. Would Chuck Barry please report to obamas office please.
Or Barry Obama.
LOL!
BWAHAHAHA. You ARE a funny one. WHOO! Must’ve taken you minutes to come up with that. Bravo!
Apple had about 12,000 employees 10 years ago. They have about 55,000 employees now. 30,000 of those are in retail, and based upon domestic vs international store breakdown, it’s safe to say 70% of those are in the US, or about 21,000. Assuming that 95% of the non-retail staff are in the US, that’s another 24,000 engineers, etc. No wonder Apple needs to build a new HQ holding 13,000 in addition to their original campus.
So, from 12,000 ten years ago, to about 45,000 today, is roughly 33,000 jobs.
I read an article awhile back where they detailed the stats on 3rd party jobs generated by Apple, independent software developers mainly. But the numbers were large, and they discussed how the majority of these jobs were well paying.
Exactly. Apple creates a “jobs halo effect”. No pun intended.
“In 1997, the company and its worldwide subsidiaries had just 8 437 regular employees, and an additional 1 739 temporary or part-time contractors and employees, according to SEC filings.
“As of last September, Apple had approximately 46 600 full-time equivalent employees and an additional 2 800 full-time equivalent temporary employees and contractors. ”
Source: http://www.fin24.com/Companies/ICT/All-hail-King-Steve-20110904
Fewer than work in the White House.
It would be too much to expect the WH and people like Huntsman to take an honest look at why Apple created those jobs overseas, specifically the destructive effect of the WH friends in the unions in the USA. And, of course, Apple is not the only company to do what is necessary to survive or thrive, as the rate of unemployment documents. Finally, it’s rich to listen to the whining about Apple not bringing jobs to America, when the official WH devices, Blackberrys, are Canadian, as is the WH campaign bus.
It would be a challenge to find a quarter million skilled and motivated workers to build iPads, iPhones, iPods anywhere else on the planet except places like China or other “emerging markets”.
Apple could launch a special “Made in America” series – but people would probably burst into tears upon seeing the price.
Do I have to remind anybody that Apple likes to keep 30-50% gross margins on everything?
Above all, it would be a logistic nightmare.
I don’t think nobody at Apple is thinking about it, but the practical challenges are probably much larger than any politician on his soap-box can imagine.
You’re right! Nowhere else but China can slave labor assemble Apple’s products, and flush the toxic byproducts down the drain into the river. Makes for low cost assembly and high Apple margins.
I hope your job moves to China.
Why don’t you pop on over to China and give them a stern talking-to, since you seem to know how horrible Apple’s hired manufacturing plants are, and no one else knows!
I love how idiots like you, who want to enslave us all to your soviet ideas, call people in china, freely working at job they are happy to have because they are the best jobs around, are “slave labor”.
Reality is, you’re the one advocating for slavery. We can’t opt out of your fascist government like the chines can opt out of apple jobs.
“Made in USA” is still too heavily meaning “Big, antediluvian, heavy and polluting machines”.
The basic mentality of “made in USA” has first to be totally revised and refreshed… Not to happen that soon, i guess…
Only in your mind. A place like china can bootstrap into a commanding position but the US can’t, you are delusional.
China does not promote innovative thought. It is still a pseudo communistic centralized bureaucracy, with their boots on the necks of education and culture.
Although Americans have gotten a bit lazy and feel entitled, no place else on earth is as good an environment for creative thought and problem solving. Free thought is encouraged. The U.S. is populated by more than our share of type-A DNA, because so many of our ancestor’s, from all countries, were willing to risk everything on a leaky boat or some such for a chance to transcend.
China continues to suffer from the effects of ‘communism’, which kills incentive, individualism and any spirit of innovation. Such governments resort to the incentives of criminality to get anything done, which of course is self-destructive. Witness post-communist Russia with the criminal state still largely intact.
China has been trying for decades to become a country of invention but remains a country of imitation, plagiarism and piracy. That’s not going to significantly change during this generation. The ever ready boot heal remains.
Unfortunately for Apple, Obama is on his way out and the next president will probably hate anything connected with Apple like all the presidents before. Steve Jobs most likely won’t be around to charm the next president, either.
It’s being said that Apple likes to keep 30-50% gross margins on everything it makes. Does anyone think that Wall Street might have something to do with that? Wouldn’t Apple’s share price drop even further if they didn’t make that much on margins? Already Apple’s share price is sagging thanks to Wall Street’s dislike of Apple while favoring Amazon.
Forget “Made in America”. Consumers are not going to pay for products that were made by American employees earning $20 an hour with full health benefits. Wall Street would absolutely hate the idea since they hate the cost factor of human labor as it is. Apple would need to ‘robotize’ every step of iDevice manufacturing to make “Made in America” even remotely possible.
Two points:
1) W Bush was an Apple fan, often had his iPod with him.
2) As we know from the behaviour that created our ongoing economic depression, the incentive within the current brain dead biznizz world is to throw the world into a new dark age of feudalism, lords and serfs, corporations and a peon slave wage class. Thus the Corporate Oligarchy who dictate the behaviour of the US government. Just watch the lunacy they inflict this year and next via their PoliTard puppets. 😛
Politicians only carry Apple devices for their trendy “with it” image (& paperless office BS). Once away from the cameras, the iPads sit on a side table in their office gathering dust, while they do their actual work on a Windows PCs and real paper. Every worker in my office notices the gargantuan waste of taxpayer money spent simply for “posing”.
Sounds suspiciously like the tired old “an iPad is just a toy” argument, which has been proven untrue more times than I can count. It sounds like you’re basing your sweeping statements on just the one example you have close familiarity with, which – based on the numerous examples to the contrary we also have evidence for – does not appear to be truly representative of the majority, nor a sufficient basis for such sweeping statements.
Maybe “Made by american robots” would be enough for Wall Street… Who knows?
But sure, with Obama, USA had its first real breakthrough as a modern thinking, realistic and more self-honest country. Hopefully this will not have to be buried again under tones of blind patriotism…
Foul muck strikes again. Shove you commie-America hater!
Clearly by the hoards of people I see at WalMart, made in America isn’t a thought in their collective heads.
Furthermore, while Dell may “Assemble” their crap boxes here, the components are not made here.
Idiotic article, filled with mental defecation.
Actually Walmart is actively working to stock more made in USA goods.
I was surprised at some of the things i found that were made in usa. Plastic cups and kids toys. I didn’t even think we still had the equipment to make those two types of products these days. 😉
Obviously your not much of a thinker Almux. Obama’s using 10th century ideology to unsuccessfully run a country created by 18th Century socio-political geniuses.
What exactly is modern about his job so far? His excuses? As far as I can tell, he’s further crippled the economy with even more beauorcatic wastful spending, gotten more Amercians killed in Iraq/Afghanistan than the last guy, started a illegal war without Congressional approval, and wittled down civil rights another few notches. Positively fuedal, I don’t see any examples of him thinking past the Enlightenment. Aside from more golfing, stuttering and inexplicably making you ‘feel’ good, his presidency is an unmitigated disaster for us all.
If he was forward thinking, he’d resign. But somehow I doubt that he can pull a Nixon by putting his ego and selfishness aside and do what’s best for everyone.
“10th century ideology”? What’s the name of the stuff you’re smoking? And the Founding Fathers weren’t geniuses. A couple of them were pretty smart – geniuses? Well, maybe Jefferson and Franklin, but most were standouts because they actually had an education – a rarity in those days.
If the economy has been crippled, it was because of the unregulated bankers that brought us down and have kept us down by not loaning all that TARP money, coupled by the uneducated idiots in the Tea Party that have prevented any positive actions on creating jobs.
As for Iraq, Bush caused more American deaths than Obama has ever had nightmares about, and basically lied to get Congressional approval for Iraq. Bush spent more time golfing than Obama has, over twice as much vacation time according to recently published figures.
The “unmitigated disaster” you mention is something Obama inherited from your boy Bush, friend! Coupled with the Republican’s new policy of saying “No” to anything Obama suggests – even former Republican ideas – this country is tethering on the brink of another recession, in spite of anything Obama has been able to come up with.
This mess is a Republican shit pile, period.
Strange how somebody without an once of reality in his excuses calls another group ‘uneducated idiots’.
Did I say strange? I meant typical….
(unregulated bankers? WTF are you mainlining?)
Those “onces” of reality will get ya every time.
Hah! I c what u meen!
(Although, he still doesn’t have a once of reality, either….)
What, you don’t remember the bankers and how they tanked the economy? Or how that happened during BUSH’s term? Or how they were pushing unregulated financial packages full of bad mortgages? Talk about a bad memory!
Or how we were in Iraq for EIGHT years during Bush’s term and the BULK of deaths there happened during those eight years?
Or how those WMD’s just happened to be a figment of his imagination?
The golfing stuff is a matter of public record, too. Hell, Clinton only had taken off something like under 30 days at this point in his first term! Looks like the Democrats have a better work ethic to me.
Go ahead, gloat at each other about your imagined bullshit, cause that’s all it is. Reality is a bitch, guys, and you’ll wake up after November 2012. With a headache.
Obama goes golfing with an iPad. Rick Perry goes jogging with a laser-sighted pistol. Hmmmm….now who would I like to have as President…….
/walks out of this thread and into another one as this one is gonna hit 5 pages before the weekend is up/
I’d rather have the thinker. The biathlete can join the Marines.
So, do you believe in the tooth fairy, too? If you believe Rick Parry shot a coyote with a laser-sighted pistol, you’ll believe anything. I’ve lived in Texas most of my life, and the coyotes I’ve happened to get a glance of are always doing their best to run away from people as fast as possible.
This myth of the coyote was created by the same people who wanted us to believe W. was a rancher, when he was nothing of the sort. W. was pure Ivy League and Skull and Bones.
I wasn’t commenting on anything about shooting a coyote (never heard that one). My comment was based upon an interview with him in which he stated that he jogged with a laser-sighted pistol to protect himself from muggers – not coyotes.
In South Texas, coyotes are are human mules…so to speak.
Maybe they attacked him because of his immigration stance.
😉
If I were jogging in Alaska, I’d pick ‘Good Hair’ Perry (I miss Molly Ivins!) over Obama. Macho Perry’d shoot the grizzly (Last time I was jogging there, I crossed paths with a sow and her 2 cubs — I got very< careful) with his pistol, then she’d eat him for annoying her.
You always run in Alaska in groups of three. You only need to be faster than one other person in the group.
I love Apple and I love China making Apple.
Wouldnt want anything Apple to be made in the USA… Nor would I want an American car! Or Korean… Or Chinese…. Haha
“Made in USA”
What is he taking about? It was made as in envisioned and designed by American workers in the USA.
Blue collar manufacturing in the USA just isn’t practical anymore in many sectors of the economy.
Instead of blathering on about jobs that require a high school education, we need to insure everyone goes to college so we as a nation can compete globally for higher paying white collar jobs.
Plenty of jobs here in the USA go to foreign workers because our own people don’t have the education to fill these positions.
Honda and Toyota and Caterpillar seem to be doing fairly well with “blue collar manufacturing in the USA”. So too, at the other end, does Frito-Lay (yes, those potato chips are manufactured). But the disincentives to local manufacturing, from ridiculous regulations to union work rules, keep pushing more jobs off-shore.
And as one who studied both engineering and political science in college (I hold two degrees in the latter), the notion that everyone should go to college is just nonsense. Half the people are wasting their time there. A whole panoply of “studies” departments could be closed down with no economic impact beyond the over-paid professoriate. And the skills that businesses are looking for aren’t coming out of our humanities and social science departments.
I read your post, Ray. I understood and agreed with everything you wrote (must be your poli-sci schooling) but, in the end, given your arguement, I would conclude the exact opposite.
I’m sure that if you lived in the country you’re suggesting you’d see the flip-side very clearly… and you’d be very afraid.
There’s gotta come a time that, when we see the massive stockpile of cash that Apple has made, that signals to the American public that here’s a company that puts cash-profits ahead of creating jobs in America. After all, once a company is making good profits, does it matter, for an extra percentage points of profit, for those manufacturing jobs to be shifted offshore rather than to American workers? Where’s the line between Tim Cook’s supply line genius vs totally not caring a stuff about creating manufacturing jobs in the U.S. – sure, we get Apple Store retail jobs, but the tech manufacturing know-how seeps away from America. People blame banks for stuffing up the U.S. economy, but equally it is the greed of people like Steve Jobs that place extra profits ahead of local jobs.
Tell all of that to the greedy pricks on Wall Street.
There is no such thing as “extra profits.” It’s all profit.
Tell me how many other companies created about 33,000 US jobs in the last ten years?
Yes, I know they were engineering and retail. If you know anything about Apple, they are not losing their manufacturing know-how. If they did they’d lose their design advantage.
I don’t have time to research them all but Mcdonalds created 50,000 this year alone 😉
From the very bottom of the article:
“CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included incorrect information about Android’s participation in the pilot program. Android is not part of the program.”
😀
About 95% of the electricity that runs Apple products is generated in the USA and you’ve got the CO2 output to prove it.
What more do you want?
Do you make up numbers for a living, or do you just do it for fun?
James @1:15 – you’re a maniac if you think the solution is to get everyone to go to college. Have you mixed widely in society outside your high tower in-group? The real world is made up of people of diverse talents, skills, IQ levels, interests and abilities. Not everyone wants to go to college, and not everyone has the ability. Good governance creates jobs for wide sectors of society. I’d be really scared if someone like you got into any form of governance, either of government or even corporate leadership. You are totally out of touch with society and grass roots people.
Not everyone needs a 4 yr, or even a 2 yr degree. (Is that why the state univ I work at has seen it’s budget cut (and our salaries & benefits, too) for the past 5 years in a row?) But James is right that the manufacturing jobs have disappeared. So people either need to settle for a low standard of living with service jobs or go after enough education to compete for a higher paying position.
It’s amazing to me that people look at the unemployment figures and don’t make the connection that continually downsizing gov causes unemployment to go up.
Actually government has been growing by leaps and bounds. Name the last time the federal Government shrank?
Rubbish. I’m sure the Republicans have shrunk the gov’t every time they’ve been in office. I mean, they’re all about that. Why wouldn’t they have actually produced results in-line with that which they espouse?
HAHAHAHAHA! You made me pee my pants laughing! 😆
Good thing you wear those adult diapers.
@Alas, poor Uric [sic], I was in your swimming pool while I was laughing.
Thats like saying you’re less guilty because someone else commited the same crime.
Democrats, just like Republicans, have screwed up a lot, so much that they can’t blame anyone else for it. There’s enough history of their screwing up with control of the White House and Congress, for comparative charts to be made.
What’s borderline criminal are brain dead morons like yourself, who keep blaming the other team’s failures instead of looking in the mirror and accepting reality. They are running the show now, that means your precious little Ds don’t get the luxury of hiding behind excuses.
Actually, it’s not even close to saying that.
Smaller government is not a central tenet of the Democratic platform you humorless fucktard.
Ohbummer using a Dell and Crackberry?
Clueless as sack full of wet slugs.
That’ll be the Secret Service approved Blackberry, numbnuts. The SS haven’t approved the iPhone.
Republicans talking about job creation and forcing big companies to do things they don’t want to? What now, will they also start saying they support taxing the rich? Are they so desperate to grab power again that they are actually lying about their very principles?
Oh wait, that’s all they have ever done. Carry on.
Between Obama’s cowardliness and the Republicans’ assholery, it’s no wonder your country is as bad as it is.
*DING* *DING* *DING*
BONUS POINTS!
Hey PukeSkyPussy,
Go screw yourself you communist!
Ah, yes. The ole name-call. Typically an indication of a truly superior intellect. Well-played. And the “communist” barb…just brilliant. I’m quite sure you changed his mind with that burst of wit. Good show. Good show!
I’m afraid ‘Made in America’ doesn’t have any legal meaning, since America is a pretty big continent and the United States is an actual country.
Dells are not manufactured in the U.S.
It’s too expensive to be made in America. What would you think a person doing one part of the assembly line will make vs an accountant or secretary? I bet the one guy gluing two pieces together will make more.
besides the valid point that americans will probably not want to pay higher prices for their products another point is that do people WANT to work in those manufacturing jobs?
I’m crazy? No, I’ve been reading that in many sectors especially tech manufacturing companies even in a downturn can’t find workers (who have specific skills and mind set i.e are willing to slave away at manufacturing). Some tech companies are even offering big fat sign up bonuses.
one example from Wall street Journal:
“… many (companies) are having trouble filling open positions…. At Mechanical Devices, which supplies parts for earthmovers and other heavy equipment to manufacturers such as Caterpillar Inc., part owner Mark Sperry says he has been looking for $13-an-hour machinists since early this year. ”
and reuters Jul 12 2011
“U.S. manufacturers cannot find skilled workers despite high unemployment,”
Politicians saying ‘more manufacturing’ probably know these facts but are just spinning for the press.
Manufacturing success is an alignment of consumers, cultural trends (do workers like these jobs), the education system and companies.
“… part owner Mark Sperry has been looking for a $13 per hour machinist since early this year…” Really? $13 per hour and he can’t find anyone? I wonder if this guy actually imagines that $13 per hour is a good wage? Not! A qualified machinist – whose spent years learning his craft – surely deserves double that, as a START.
Apple is a global company with well over half of it’s sales outside the USA. Those people do not want to pay an additional premium for the product to say made in the USA. As the Chineese market grows, Apple will have more and more Chineese currensy that can be used towards production, if all the manufacturing is in the USA, tax will have to be paid on the forign currency as it is brought home. This in turn will put prodution costs up.
Why build these products here if unions are just going to ruin everything? Sorry the US regulations and unions make “Made in America” impossible
No, the US cost of living takes care of that.
Wow! The iPad has a Teleprompter port?
And it supports remote login by George Soros.
You’re super smart, Gary.
Manufacturing isn’t coming back, folks. Repeat that 20 times.
Get used to it, get an education, and get a job that isn’t pulling a lever for minimum wage.
C1, I usually completely agree, however, on this point I do not. Manufacturing can and will return to this country. I work for a company and we export over 80% of our goods. It’s hard to do, and there’s almost no government support for maintaining jobs. I am a CPA, and while I know there is a need to reduce spending (tea party), we cannot and should not solve our budget issues by spending cuts alone. Need to close tax loop holes for energy companies, defense contractors (GE) (Boeing), that take billions but pay no taxes. The countless firms (GE, Boeing, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, etal,) that have moved their intellectual property to tax haven countries, and take enormous tax deductions for royalty payments each and every year to use that intellectual property. Go after CEO’s with a simple multiple of salary formula, it’s OK to pay those millions, but there’s no tax deduction beyond a certain amount (multiple of lowest paid salary) or service rate.
Better trade laws and holding our partners (Korea for example) accountable meeting existing trade agreements.
I laugh about people talking about banks to big to fail, but the US is a country that everyone believes is too big to fail, and simply put, it’s not. Nothing is too big to fail, and Americans better get busy tending to restoring the competitiveness and strength of this country, and that includes the CEO’s of multinationals, who acquire great wealth under the security and influence of this very same country and yet off-shore more and more jobs every quarter.
I’ll tell you no one in Korea, Japan, China, France, Germany, etal thing or have government policies supporting exporting jobs. Only the USA.