“How do you become a business titan that treats employees like garbage, creates products intended to be monopolies, charges excessive prices that result in outrageous profits, practices significant tax avoidance, and yet not get pilloried (on the contrary, become deified) by the anti-business media? ” Bruce Bialosky asks for Townhall. “It’s simple; you are Steve Jobs and you are just too cool to criticize.”
“As accounted by Walter Isaacson in his recently-published biography of the late Mr. Jobs, the man was a fruitcake (no pun intended since he called himself a fruitarian),” Bialosky writes. “His behavior towards other people was, at best, erratic, and very often anti-social.”
Bialosky writes, “The fact that he broke almost all the rules of the Left and yet remained an icon to them is quite instructive.”
Here are some examples:
1. He was a horrible employer
MacDailyNews Take: Hoo Boy.
1. Apple CEO Steve Jobs gets 90% approval rating from own employees – March 9, 2009
2. He exercised maniacal control over his products, adamantly refusing to consider open platforms. He maintained this closed platform philosophy for the iPod, the iPad, and the iPhone – which is one reason why sales of Google’s Android-based smart phones have now surpassed the iPhone (and also why sales of Android-based tablets will exceed iPads within the next year).
MacDailyNews Take: Wrong again:
• With 8.7% market share, Apple reaps 75% of mobile phone profits – February 3, 2012
• Gartner: Tablet sales to hit 119 million units in 2012; Apple iPad to lead through at least 2016 – April 10, 2012
3. Through extensive marketing, he convinced people to pay more for his products than comparable products offered by his competitors.
MacDailyNews Take: Marketing, eh?
• J.D. Power: Apple ranks highest in smartphone customer satisfaction for 7th consecutive time – March 16, 2012
• Apple sweeps PCWorld Satisfaction Surveys for desktops, notebooks, smartphones, and tablets – December 7, 2011
• Apple Mac tops American Customer Satisfaction Index customer satisfaction for 8th consecutive year – September 20, 2011
4. Steve Jobs was always – and Apple continues to be – a monumental exporter of American jobs. While President Obama is running around accusing Mitt Romney of exporting jobs, he is well aware that Jobs was the master, creating over 700,000 manufacturing positions in China. To his credit, however, Jobs did tell the President to his face that he exported jobs because the educational system in America is disgraceful due to its domination by teachers unions.
MacDailyNews Take: 514,000 U.S. jobs created thanks to Apple Inc. – March 2, 2012
5. Using these business practices, he rang up the largest profits in American history, but does anyone complain about Apple’s outsized profiteering? The Left complains about banks and oil companies and drug companies because they’re not “cool” like Steve Jobs. But Apple’s profit margins are 29.66%, compared to Shell Oil’s 6.74% or Citibank’s 11.73%.
MacDailyNews Take: See our response to #3 and:
• Huge crowds line up for Apple’s new iPad on 1st day – March 16, 2012
• Eager crowds line up for The King of all Smartphones: Apple’s iPhone 4S – October 14, 2011
6. And after earning exorbitant profits, he practiced serious tax avoidance (which I wholeheartedly endorse for any entity, but the Left hates.) What’s fascinating is how the Left protected and excused him for this; in fact, the New York Times just published a serious analysis of Apple’s tax avoidance schemes. It’s obvious that the Times knew about this for years, but chose not to write about it when Jobs was alive… To be fair to the Times, at least they contrasted the tax rate of Apple with that of the Evil Empire (WalMart). Apple’s federal tax rate was 9.8% while the Evil Empire paid 24%. What is a liberal to do?
MacDailyNews Take: Nope:
• The New York Times blows it again: Incorrectly reports Apple’s tax rate as 9.8% when Apple actually paid 24.2% – April 30, 2012
• Apple to The New York Times: We are among the top payers of U.S. income tax – April 29, 2012
7. It wasn’t until late in life that he started to make substantial contributions to charitable organizations. Compared to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, he was never a generous person and chose to live in quite a luxurious life-style.
MacDailyNews Take: Prove “it wasn’t until late in life” that Jobs began to make substantial contributions to charity (Bialosky can’t). Steve Jobs lived with his family in a modest home in a normal neighborhood, without locked gates or bodyguards like many CEOs of major companies and, oh, BTW:
• Bono praises Steve Jobs as generous and ‘poetic’ philanthropist; Apple has been (RED)’s largest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – September 2, 2011
• On charity, Steve Jobs has a right to remain silent – August 30, 2011
• Apple helps iTunes users donate to Japan earthquake and tsunami victims – March 13, 2011
• Apple and American Red Cross begin accepting Haiti relief donations through iTunes – January 15, 2010
Steve Jobs, Bono confirm ‘Product Red’ Apple iPod nano, iTunes ‘Red’ gift card – October 12, 2006
• Apple adds ‘Donate to American Red Cross’ section to iTunes Music Store for Hurricane Katrina relief – September 1, 2005
Bialosky writes, “The point of all this is that the Left has always chosen its favored capitalists. Unions anoint business people whom they favor, and our President has been a major practitioner of crony capitalism – picking winners and losers. If Steve Jobs (and Apple) gets a pass for whatever reason, then every business in America should be treated the same way. And we didn’t even mention the child and slave labor used to manufacture Apple’s products.”
Full shmegegge – Think before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bruce, you’ve accomplished a rather amazing feat: You got everything wrong. Congrats!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Who’s the real “fruitcake”? Wtf! Leave the man and his family alone, he’s gone for C’ sake!
Best MDN take of the year.
“How do you become a business titan that treats employees like garbage, creates products intended to be monopolies, charges excessive prices that result in outrageous profits, practices significant tax avoidance, and yet not get pilloried (on the contrary, become deified) by the anti-business media?”
Get into the oil business…?
C1 gets the best post of the year award!
Go into politics.
Oil companies typically operate on 4-5% profit margins. You pay more in taxes on a gallon of gasoline than the oil company is making on the deal. As for tax avoidance, good for them. Every dollar exxon keeps for their shareholders is a dollar not spent on goons groping old ladies in airports.
-jcr
that is correct John, the evil is not Apple or Big Oil or the American workforce..it’s the government and its unquenchable socialist greed.
lol you think assembling iPads on a ten-hour shift is hard work, go work on a drilling rig in the Texas panhandle in the heat of August.
loll you’ll throw up your breakfast..I sure did my first day.
nobody, nowhere, can work harder and smarter than Americans, our only weakness is the tyranny of a socialist-bent government that has burdened our ambitions.
what?!
we americans are hard & smart?
so the rest of the world are lazy & dumb?
you blame out demise on socialism?
our ailments were cause by the republicans to start with.
do you know one of the top economies in the world is germany? they’re a socialist-democratic capitalist country. they’re doing better than us on every level. economically. politically. education. infrastructure. green and other tech. etc.
get your facts right before you blabber.
the smartest iQs in the world are not here at home but abroad. smarter than einstein for instance is the brit stephen hawking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking)
but you are right in that Apple is not guilty of tax evasion or stealing jobs. our gov. has become the witch hunter, the police state, and we no longer are a democracy.
but Steve Jobs, despite making Apple and its shareholder rich, as he personally despite $7B lived in a humble home not fenced in like most american ceos or with their much bigger fortunes, was a socialist at heart – knowing how to make more money that any pure capitalist!
I never said the rest of the world is dumb and lazy, I said (verbatim) “nobody, nowhere, can work harder and smarter than Americans”…I stand by that statement and its supporting reasoning. Also, after your reading your comment “but Steve Jobs, despite making Apple and its shareholder rich, as he personally despite $7B lived in a humble home not fenced in like most american ceos or with their much bigger fortunes, was a socialist at heart – knowing how to make more money that any pure capitalist!” assures me you are an idiot.
“the smartest iQs in the world are not here at home but abroad..”
you’re certainly proof of that.
the reply button no longer appears, so here’s to botvinnik:
if i’m an idiot and what is proof of that?!
what makes you so smart? seriously, what?
that you can be a typical american slob, insulting the world, arrogant as hell?
this aggressive arrogance & attitude is exactly what’s causing the world to hate us & mock us.
“I never said the rest of the world is dumb and lazy, I said (verbatim) ‘nobody, nowhere, can work harder and smarter than Americans’ ” come on, stop beating around the bush. you spoil it for the rest of us americans who do not need to brag to feel secure or macho. if you say we work so much harder, how do we work harder than the rest of the world? how are we work smarter than the rest? our infrastructure & economy & education is crumbling, so where do you come from with your logic?!
even our best example of entrepreneurialism, nasa, went bankrupt.
stop bragging. we american are smart. creative. but so are many other countries. no one’s better than the next. everyone can work hard.
i do not get your pint. but insult if you must. everyone mocks you for that. unless they’re as smart as you, needing to insult to hide your lack of etiquette, culture, iq.
You get your facts straight.
Germany is, like the United States of America, a republic. A republic is a country in which the reins of power are held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated leader rather than a monarch.
Germany is a parliamentary republic, to be more precise. Germany’s parliament has two chambers, somewhat akin to the U.S.’s congress (House and Senate).
The current Chancellor of Germany, since Nov. 2005 is Angela Merkel.
Merkel is considered to be pro-market. She advocated removing barriers to laying off employees. She was in favor of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In 2010, Merkel stated that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany had “utterly failed.” Merkel also advocates deep spending cuts in order to rein in massive budget deficits.
Selfish, invasive government = the opposite of socialism.
Although pointing that out probably won’t accomplish anything.
socialism |ˈsōSHəˌlizəm|
noun
a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
• policy or practice based on this theory.
• (in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism.
here we go again botvinnik…
why are you so aggressively pro-american, anti-world? you’re a typical childish spoilt brat american. giving the rest of us americans a bad reputation as the world ridicules us.
what is typical american of people like you, is that you only see the world as our most infantile pres. bush who was nothing but a bush. you are either with us or with evil, black & white. there’s no gray. no room for error. no room for diplomacy or real democratic debate. no room for humaneness. if you’re not a pure capitalist, you must be a commi bastard.
you hide behind your ignorance. all you know is quote definitions. but if you’re so smart, you should travel-abroad. see the real world. see that our fake patriotism, false democracy without freedom as we’re in a police state, impure capitalism etc. is all a facade, to brainwash, numb our people. if you get out there, you see that there are other forms of democracy that mix with socialism, as germany, and are not communist and survive well and with a much higher standard of living that we do.
just disagreeing with your extreme views makes us all communists, gay, liberal?! you are an extremist!
grow up. either you’re too young. or inexperienced – just like a virgin. if you’re old enough, then go relax, go get laid.
go abroad – and not to reach the 1st colonizing McDonald’s joint. go out to learn how the rest of the human race lives, thinks and is not communist but much more liberal than we are. you do not allow debate, are extreme in your views, think we’re something special delivered by god etc. you contradict freedom of speech.
if we’re so special, why is our economy so bad, it brinks on decadence or disappearance of our civilization. how could we be so smart as people if we elected those schmucks, or how could our politicians & capitalist pig businesses ruin us from so many bailouts & rob us hard-working, smart-working people as you say yourself, blind! how is our educationally system so bankrupt & yet so obscenely expensive? if we’re civilized education should be for entire population, not a pure business for profits! and why, if so smart, is our infrastructure as bad as in the 3rd world? if we’re so smart, why do we send our kids to die in 4-5 wars abroad that we invented, have no purpose, are about lies, in countries that are so far from us they’d never threaten us? there’s so many examples. so cool down.
we are just as human as the rest of the world. we’re brainwashed to think we’re better, smarter, harder, more powerful, richer, more entrepreneurial. it’s all b.s. in the end, even us americana only have 1 head, 2 balls, 2 eyes, 2 legs…we’re all the same, whether you believe in God or Science.
you’re batshit bonkers.
what makes you less bonkers or batshitty?
espèce de crapule inculte et enculer qui ne comprend rien de la vie, la liberté, le bonheur, qui vit pour insulter mais se ridiculise a lui meme – regarde toi ton ton miroir
if you’d be smart you’d know more than 1 language
lol, man go take a StressTab and lie down Miller..jeez.
lol, wow.
ignorance is bliss. it makes you laugh. you can’t do anything but.
by the way, i’m not that american, i don’t need pills to solve my problems. life is not disneyland or magic or wishful thinking.
look whose talking, i’m not stressed. you’re the one not comfortable in their now skin – hence all the big talk, not walk.
the lady doth protest too much.
Oil business is protected from criticism by the liberal press? This is news to me, when did this happen C1, I didn’t get the memo.
Reexamine your assumptions.
Bruce Bialosky of Townhall is going to need to find a new career.
Bruce, have you been hanging out with that royal asshole, Dan Lyons? You sound just like him.
Stick to writing about things you understand, Bruce. Apple Inc. and Steve Jobs aren’t your forte.
There’s plenty of things of substance with which to attack the Left, you don’t need to scribble complete nonsense and exceed your mental capabilities so egregiously.
Oh, BTW, after you drop dead, hope you don’t mind if I take a piss on your grave, either.
Wow, can’t believe I agree with F2T2!
If people attacked the left for things of substance, the world would be a better place. Same thing for the right. Unfortunately, substance is usually the last thing noted by pundits and the talking-headists.
This was interesting. The article appears on a conservative web site. So, MDN was put in a position to choose between their political leaning and Apple. And they went after the writer with vengeance, tearing him to shreds, which sort of put them on the left. On all other more neutral matters, MDN is always solidly on the political right. This time, they went against their own convictions because someone was talking nonsense about Apple.
You gotta respect that, no matter what your domestic political affiliation…
I don’t get the idea that MDN leans right or left. Where are the examples that MDN “is always solidly on the political right?”
countless, just countless, unless you’re new to the site. favorite time is friday’s so an obvious “bait-post” for the guys (maybe some ladies) with an agenda and time on their hands to rant can respond.
Covering what Rush Limbaugh said about Apple, or Obama’s use of a Blackberry, or a Fox News review of an Apple product does not mean that MDN “leans right.”
You’re kidding, right?
But kudos to MDN for shredding the conservative idiot. All idiots, left or right, should be shredded. In this case, the shredding was as thorough as when Wm. Buckley took down the Gablers on Firing Line.
And yes, Town Hall is the home of conservative hit whores.
Much as I’d like to just take your word for it… links, please.
“I don’t get the idea that MDN leans right or left.”
Really?
Where did you go to school?
You think the pinup of Rush Limpaugh that they post every time they quote the Hillbilly Heroin addict just posts itself?
Illustrating an article with a photo of the speaker being referenced does not make MDN right-leaning.
They illustrated hundreds of Steve Jobs articles with – gasp! – photos of Steve Jobs. That didn’t make them left-leaning or pro-LSD, either.
They’ve removed several of my posts because they pointed out the hypocrisy of either their own take (MDN’s take, that is) or that of a rabid conservative commenter on the site. That shows clear bias in my book.
I’d be surprised if this comment lasts more than a few minutes before being deleted. But who knows… It’s late.
Rush has always been a Mac fanatic, even back in the 1980’s and he often brags up and makes comments on Apple computers, or Steve Jobs. And that is Mac News. MDN cites other writers, TV, etc. he is just one of the many stories here. But because you hate him, it’s a big deal to you. MDN puts up quotes from fat liberal blorts who run their idiot mouths too. Equal time, don’t worry.
The misconception here is because MDN tends to lean towards the sensible, and to the truth, rather than to the political right. While the heart of the political left is generally in the correct (not to say “right” :)) place, their way of going about it generally needs, shall we say, more thought.
“A young man who is not a liberal has no heart; an older man who is not a conservative has no brain.” The trick is to keep both.
This is what’s wrong with American politics and public discourse. Because one takes a position that happens to coincide with one faction or another, one is automatically assigned the philosophy and all the positions of that faction and thereafter neatly pigeon-holed. From that point forward the true and literal meaning of all one’s utterances is ignored, and it is assumed that one meant to support whatever position is held by one’s assigned group on the subject.
People who don’t like my position on abortion assume I’m a conservative, and people who don’t like my position on the death penalty say I’m a liberal. Neither group will actually listen to what I say. They are too busy formulating their next attack on my assumed position. Communication of complex ideas becomes impossible.
So very true. Somehow “moderate” (holds pro-left and pro-right views on different topics) has become almost as dirty a word to the mainstream as liberal, socialist, even progressive. Such black and white extremist thinking is retarded.
(I’m not sure what NEUTRAL term describing right-leaning ideology has been twisted into an insult. Only the extreme left consider small-c “conservative” an insult)
1
I am economically conservative but socially liberal. I feel that I have no representation in our government today. When I go to vote, I usually go to vote against someone I really dislike. I rarely vote FOR anyone
I can not be the only one who feels like this, and it will be the undoing of our democracy when the majority feels disenfranchised.
As for the original topic, maybe the writer is related to Rob Enderle or Dvorak. They are always wrong about everything also
Bile-osky? How appropriate.
Thanks MDN for listing the actually facts. But will these bile spreading idiots ever learn? Probably not. Or is it that they already know the truth but are trying to rewrite history for a few pieces of silver.
I get tired of the whole “marketing” angle.
If I were swayed by marketing, I’d be on VZ’s lame, backassward 1980’s network with a Samsung, computing on a Dell and using Windows.
(Does Apple even have an ad for the iMac? I’ve never seen one and that’s my computer of choice.)
Fact is, I can look around at the things I own, and absolutely NONE of them were purchased because of “marketing”.
Not only that, marketing and PR only gets people in the door. If your product is actually overhyped garbage that’s too frustrating to use, consumer satisfaction would be lower and they’ll have no attachment or loyalty to it, and will consciously look for something better next time.
Unless you’re an idiot or comatose, which many of the Microsoft user base seem to be.
With some of his quotes it sounds like “talking points” about our current President from the traditional ultra conservative media and what a certain Presidential candidate is spouting off about “choosing winners over loosers”. Since everything he is blathering about is, as MDN has pointed out, is wrong it really boils down to trying to get those he believes are on the “Left” to hate Jobs and Apple, rather than make any serious commentary.
What a bunch of drivel.
Bialosky needs a reality check. What world does he live in anyway?
wow. Bialosky didn’t learn from the Nazis. He’s Founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition in CA, but his biased fascism makes him no different.
http://townhall.com/columnists/brucebialosky/
what did he do lately, for the good of the country, purely the u.s., without supporting stealing our hard-earned $ to wash in israel? billions per year. our country is dying in debt, yet every year we waste billions in that direction. historically, israel already got $2T+!!! his jewish coalition support that, but Steve Jobs is anti-patriotic?! go figure!
why do some of us americans have such a hard time accepting Steve Jobs?! Apple is the only firm we can truly be proud of as americans, everybody abroad loves Apple, but no other american firm. Steve/Apple symbolize american potential, ingenuity, creativity.
besides, it’s the only one of our firms in the black, recession-proof too. why deride it?!
they kill it? why wish it bad? why not see how EVERY other big corporation avoids taxes just as much, if not more, why single out Apple?!
besides, why don’t you ask our government to not be the worst offender of taxes? we’re the only democracy hunting us down as expats, taxing us worldwide. that is not freedom. besides, Mr bloody Bialosky, are you pissed there’s not enough taxes to suck on for israel, is that your issue?
stop being so childish, spoilt, ignorant, greedy, dumb. Steve Jobs creates many jobs in the u.s. Apple pays tons of taxes. Apple gives more than any corporation. there’s nothing negative about Apple. relax. go jerk off.
if you had the cojones to read MDN’s take on all your b.s. or lies, you’d be a man you schmuck, but you have not reached that state yet. i feel sad for you.
all your bigotry, your cry baby, is self-inflicted. you suffer from a psychological disease called 1. jealousy 2. stockholm syndrome. 3. guilt.
That was craptacular.
Is Bruce Bialosky a 12 year old? His understanding of what the left wants, is, how it operates is adolescent. His understanding of Steve Jobs is even worse.
Breathtaking. Just too stupid to react to. MDN did a good job, I was just so overwhelmed there didn’t seem to be any place to start.
looking forward to Macalope’s critique on this plonker.
Amen!!
MDN: LOVED the takes 😀 You really went to town on this hit-whore.
well done, MDN.
He is just another Windows, Blackberry, Android moron.
Not a clue what Apple is all about!
Just another dumbass.
“And we didn’t even mention the child and slave labor used to manufacture Apple’s products.”
After reading the actual article and seeing this last line, I’m pretty sure this was meant to be tongue and cheek. The last line give’s it away as well as being completely wrong on every point. It had to be a joke that would cause hits and he knew it.
Unfortunately, Apple fans were the game and some readers, cough, cough……..took the bait.
Horse shit from a Conservatard Website owned by a Conservatard company.
From the website:
“Townhall.com is the #1 conservative website. Townhall.com pulls together political commentary and analysis from over 100 leading columnists and opinion leaders, research from 100 partner organizations, conservative talk-radio and a community of millions of grassroots conservatives.
As a part of Salem Communications Corporation, Townhall.com features Salem’s News/Talk radio hosts, Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, and Dennis Prager, who are heard on over 300 stations nationwide. Of our five hosts, three are among the top 10 radio talk shows in the nation!”
Otherwise, the supposed offense is attributed to liberals by people who are not. Typical delusional Conservatard disinformation.
Well this thread really went off the rails. Not that I’m surprised.
You can’t export jobs that were never here.
what an f’ing idiot. Has he been subjected to a drug test? I bet he’d fail!
Douche!
Childish Bullshit. But this is what the so called press is reduced to…
Maybe the Left Bialosky keeps referring to is the other Left…