Ralph Nader, a five-time failed U.S. presidential candidate, has written an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Here it is, verbatim:
Dear Mr. Cook,
“Designed by Apple in California” has a nicer ring to it than “Assembled by workers paid about a dollar per hour, working 11-hour shifts, and sleeping eight to a room in the Jabil Circuit corporate dormitories in Wuxi, China.” But, no matter how you spin it on the iPhone packaging, you continue to turn away from the horrid working conditions and miserly pay at your Chinese factories. Just last month, while you displayed through a two hour event on the insandouts of tiny iPhone 6 and Apple Watch design breakthroughs how capable your company is of solving problems it cares to solve, China Labor Watch and Green America revealed in their newest report, “Two Years of Broken Promises” how you have failed to apply even a modicum of the problemsolving focus you bring for product design to the “serious health and safety, environmental, and human rights violations” at Chinese factories assembling the iPhone.
“That’s the price of affordable phones,” says the corporatist argument. This could be the case, if Apple was just barely profitable. But, as revealed in a recent letter responding to Carl Icahn’s call for more stock buybacks (you respond to billionaire’s pleas much more often than workers’ pleas), Apple is planning to have repurchased $130 billion of its own shares by the end of next year. In short, Apple is so profitable, that it does not know what to do with $130 billion except buy back stock from its shareholders to maybe boost its share price.
There are many alternate ways could have spent its surplus profits. For example, what if Apple decided to invest that excess $130 billion in dignified working conditions and living wages, instead of unproductively using their surplus to buy stocks back from the wealthy? Estimates differ, but according to Chinese labor watchdogs, factory workers in Apple’s supply chain make average salaries of, estimating at the high end, about $500 per month for about 80 hours of work per week. Doubling monthly salaries and cutting hours in half reforms that would make great strides towards having Chinese factories meet modern, dignified standards of a living wage from a 40hour work week would cost ~$1500 per month (~$18,000 per year) for each factory worker. To have achieved these reforms for the 300,000 Foxconn workers who assembled the iPhone 5s would have cost Apple about $5.4 billion annually.
If instead of buying back stock, Apple had used its excess $130 billion to endow a foundation to achieve these reforms, it would have paid out at a conservative five percent interest $6.5 billion annually, enough to double wages and ensure a 40-hour workweek for hundreds of thousands of iPhone workers, while leaving a $1.1 billion surplus as an annual budget for ensuring topnotch health, safety and environmental standards at Apple factories. The technology company that leads the way in profits and product design could, without changing anything but the amount of excess, unproductive money it uses to repurchase stock from wealthy shareholders, could also lead the way in dignified working conditions, hours and wages. Finally, some of Apple’s Chinese factory workers may become able to buy the iPhones they manufacture.
This goes to show that tolerating poverty wages is not the price we pay for affordable phones. Rather, poverty wages and harmful conditions are a consequence of tolerating outrageous stock buybacks. You had a choice for the $130 billion: living wages for workers or stock buybacks for millionaires? You chose buybacks. Here’s a challenge for the present and future use of surplus profits: why not let the customers decide? Just as they have consumer interests in thinner iPhones and sleeker MacBooks, they also have humane interests in more dignified working conditions and more liveable wages for the workers that make their products. And you, more than any other CEO, have the technological ability to poll your customers about who Chinese workers or millionaire shareholders should receive Apple’s excess money.
Are you scared that they might Think Different™ about this issue than Carl Icahn?
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
MacDailyNews Take: A few points:
• The vast majority of AAPL shareholders are not “millionaires.” To claim otherwise is demagoguery, which is, of course, Ralph Nader’s stock-in-trade.
• Apple doesn’t have any Chinese factories, hence these are not “Apple’s Chinese factory workers.”
• Why would non-Apple companies have any claim whatsoever to Apple’s money over actual Apple stakeholders?
• Apple Inc. is a business, not a charity.
• Apple has done more to raise conditions and pay for Chinese factory workers than any other company on earth.
• Ralph Nader is an illogical kook. His open letter should be placed directly into Tim Cook’s circular file.
For more info, Apple Inc.’s Supplier responsibility website is: www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/
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Apple bans use of 2 hazardous chemicals in iPhone assembly – August 13, 2014
Greenpeace praises Apple for reducing use of conflict minerals – February 13, 2014
Apple confirms suppliers use conflict-free minerals – February 13, 2014
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Apple: 99% of supply chain workers now working under 60 hours per week – March 7, 2013
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Couldn’t have said it any better MDN.
Nader is an opportunist ambulance chaser. Why doesn’t he start a company and actually create something of value and then he can pay his workers whatever he wants.
Bravo Nader!
The world has been fooled by the capitalist agenda.
Ok. I’m pretty left wing. I support gun control, and I like universal health care (bring Canadian). But if apple pays its contractors more money, then that increases the contractors profits. The money will NOT filter down to the workers.
Also, I dislike the idea that businesses that are not profitable are exempt from considering the conditions of workers. Company x isn’t making any profit, so they can treat their workers like crap? Maybe company x shouldn’t be in business then, or maybe they should design a better product.
Vent complete.
I think of myself as a mildly conservative Canadian, but that pretty much makes me a communist to many of the folks on this site. But I agree completely with Doug. Any extra money that AAPL paid would go into the pockets of the management. They could try to write an agreement, but the workers would still be working double shifts in order to send the money home. In most cases, our enlightened viewpoint does far more harm than good.
I’m to the left of many but once again, am sick of the hypocritical and ignorant singling out of Apple whenever it’s successful for abusing Chinese workers. I’ve yet to hear any other company mentioned when these concerns are raised. Nader and his old buddy Phil Donahue can go to hell. What have you done for me lately? Once upon a time, Nader seemed like one of the good guys. He’s a demented egomaniac who thinks he’s a super-hero.
And yet I have to wonder, if Ol’ Ralphy were just as wrong about Exxon, Wal-Mart, Halliburton or Pfizer, would you rush to argue against him?
I seriously think not, which is a small part of the reason we got someone like Mr. Obama as President.
I agree. If they paid the supplier twice as much the workers wouldn’t see it. I like the idea though.
I’d gladly pay $20 more for a phone if it brought production back to the USA and put an American to work with a good paying job.
If the can build Mac Pro’s here, they can also make iPhones and iPads here too. Better the money goes into the pockets of hard working deserving American, than a bunch of communists who abuse and exploit their own citizens.
I don’t like my money going to the greedy, corrupt, anti-American Chinese Communist Party. They’re using that money to build weapons to fight us. Not to mention the party members who line their pockets with their ill gotten gains off the backs of their exploited workers.
It’s just wrong, and needs to be changed. Too much sacrifice in the name of greed. We give billions of dollars to China, yet we can’t go on vacation to Cuba. They’re both as corrupt and a threat to democracy. Go figure.
‘make iPhones and iPads here too. Better the money goes into the pockets of hard working deserving American, ‘
Or robots – that’s the only way these items will ever be made in the US again. Too many shirkers in the USA are riding on tax payers’ backs.
There is a big difference in making 1 million Mac pros annually and 1 million iPhones a week. It would take a lot of infrastructure that currently doesn’t exist to produce iPhones in the USA.
I must respectfully disagree with you. My viewpoint is not to infer that I am a right-wing conservative. Rather, my opinion is based on how publicly-owned businesses work.
A publicly-held and traded company is owned by its stockholders. That could include big Wall Street institutions, large pension funds and hedge funds. But it also means that the owners of Apple are people like you and me, small-time investors. This is something that Ralph Nader simply does not understand. Ownership of a publicly held company is not monolithic; in fact, Apple owns but a small percentage of the shares of the company’s stock. (For details, see: https://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=AAPL+Major+Holders)
Second, as others have noted, Apple does not own most of the factories in which its products are produced. As such, those working inside the factories of its suppliers are employed by the suppliers, not Apple. That Apple is applying pressure and standards on its suppliers for better treatment of their (e.g., the suppliers) employees is a quite progressive move by Apple, something not always equaled by its competitors.
Third, the factories to which Mr. Nader is referring are in foreign countries not beholden to US laws. It might be one thing if the issue was with a US-based factory owned by Apple, such as the Texas plant that produces Mac Pro computers, a company owned distribution warehouse, an Apple retail store or corporate offices. This is not the case. Apple has no control over the laws or practices of foreign countries in which its suppliers operate; it can only try to influence them to raise their standards. Nader must know this, or willfully chooses to be ignorant of reality.
Fourth, Apple operates in a highly competitive global environment. That Apple has pushed to improve working standards worldwide for employees of its foreign suppliers is exemplary. However, its mostly foreign competitors are not typically held to such standards, which in effect is a double-standard.
If Apple were to force its suppliers to vastly increase pay to its employees, would Samsung, Lenovo, Xiaomi or HTC follow suit? I rather doubt that. In fact, they would view such a move as a sign of weakness, and use this generosity to further try to undercut Apple’s pricing.
If Mr. Nader is so concerned about working conditions in countries such as China, why does he not appeal directly to the Chinese government and to the supplier companies themselves? My answer: because he knows it is futile. Instead, by shaming a successful company such as Apple, he is merely grandstanding. At best, it is tilting at windmills. More likely, it is a shameless attempt to stay relevant and in the news, something I view as pathetic.
Mr. Nader’s letter is the feel-good movie of the summer. But instead of demanding change from Tim Cook, Nader should shout at the millions of holders of the company’s stock and the Chinese government as well as the large competitors to Apple. He will not, because Nader must know this is a waste of time.
Or perhaps not. To pursue such misguided idealism is to see a man completely out of touch with the reality of how a publicly-held business operates, and by extension, how capitalism operates.
This is not to say that working conditions abroad are perfect. They are not. But consider the alternatives of an employee of a Chinese Apple supplier. Instead of working in a clean, highly managed factory with dormitories and cafeterias, assurance of relatively good pay, these same employees could be held hostage in sweatshops that are all too common in other parts of the world, paid barely subsistence level wages, toil under appalling conditions, and worse. These are not the standards that Apple allows, and Apple closely monitors its suppliers.
I would be angered by the arrogance of Ralph Nader in this case. But I know this will go nowhere. Perhaps Mr. Nader can effect change within the United States. But in China, he has no voice. Using the tactic of shaming a company like Apple is by itself shameful, not unlike the greenmail shakedown practiced all too frequently by others you might name. If the end game of a Ralph Nader is to expect compensation to shut up, then he is no different than a Carl Icahn, but in the opposite polarity. By contrast, Icahn understands the nature of capitalism, however imperfect it might be.
It’s sad to see that a man like Nader has no clue of the function of capitalism, the limits any company has over foreign countries, their laws or culture. Nothing will change. But I doubt that Nader really cares. He got is 15 minutes of fame on TV and in print by shouting from rooftops. And in the end, that is all he wants.
That is not progressive thinking. It is self-serving. He should be ashamed, not Apple.
Fanculo nader
The dinosaur rumbles…
Fu Nader. Hey I know, why don’t all u whiners start your own company and practice what u preach. Oh but doing that would mean actual work on your part. I guess its easier to sit around with pudgy, pasty al gore and bully people.
Ralph Nader lost all credibility when he tipped the 2000 election to George W. Bush, aka “the worst President EVER”
Any good Nader has ever done in his criticism of corporate actions is offset by the blood on his hand.
The worst president in the history of the world is on the golf course while the world burns and Americans die.
Amen, brother.
Well, Bush wasn’t much of a golfer.. he preferred hunting vacations, but you are right that he basically did nothing while the county dove into freefall.
Wasn’t much of a President either!
Jimmy Carter was the worst president ever. Dear god.
Nope, I think with recent events Obama passed him. Even Carter publicly against many of Obama’s policies. So that gives him more intelligence than Obama.
You must made Jonny’s point.
“Now watch me hit this drive.”
Ralphie needs a proofreader….TONS of grammar mistakes (or simply omitted words) in his rant.
yeah, I don’t see nadar on the radar.
Waaah! Why is nobody paying attention to me? Don’t you people understand, I am Ralph Effing Nader! Pay attention to me! Waaaah!
If Mr Nader would take a cultural anthropology seminar he might realize just how ridiculous his suggestions are. Desiring to change another culture and affecting the same are VERY different things.
Nader is a schmuck. He was always a schmuck. He’ll be a schmuck tomorrow, too.
Still at it, Ralph?
He made his big mark initially with his book about the Corsair, Unsafe at Any Speed. As the actual accident records demonstrate, his case was an outright fabrication.
Corvair.
The Corvair certainly had its safety issues, but so did virtually every other car being built in the world at that time. It was also one of the most innovative cars built in America–rear engine, air-cooled, small and light. It was perfectly reasonable to call attention to widespread safety issues, but the way Nader did it–picking on a single model–guaranteed that nothing forward-thinking would come out of Detroit for decades.
You are full of it. A good friend of mine was on the jury that found GM guilty. The fact that the Corvette had parallel rear wheel frames and this did not curl under and flip the car. In the trial it was shown GM thought of doing same thing for the Corsair but found it would cost $18 more than the single pivot they went with . The jury was unanimous in finding GM guilty, and so was any engineer or expert. You must not have been born then, there was not disagreement about the Corsair. Like the Pinto gas tank , deliberate cheapness of the car companies.
Facts have no room in the court of emotion.
I wrote that…..
maybe you are full of crap.. Cause it’s been debunked for years.
Just a little reading for ya.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair
“First-generation (1960–1963) Corvair handling characteristics became the subject of controversy when Ralph Nader addressed them in his 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed. GM had over 100 lawsuits pending in connection with crashes involving the Corvair, which subsequently became the initial material for Nader’s investigations.[23] The book highlighted crashes related to the Corvair’s suspension and identified the Chevrolet suspension engineer who had fought management’s decision to remove—for cost reasons—the front anti-sway bar installed on later models. Nader said during subsequent Congressional hearings, the Corvair is “the leading candidate for the un-safest-car title”.[24] Subsequently, Corvair sales fell from 220,000 in 1965 to 109,880 in 1966. By 1968 production fell to 14,800.[24] Public response to the book played a role in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966.
A 1972 safety commission report conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that the 1960–1963 Corvair possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporary competitors in extreme situations.[25] The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a press release in 1972 describing the findings of NHTSA testing from the previous year. NHTSA had conducted a series of comparative tests in 1971 studying the handling of the 1963 Corvair and four contemporary cars—a Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Volkswagen Beetle, and Renault Dauphine—along with a second-generation Corvair (with its completely redesigned, independent rear suspension). The 143-page report reviewed NHTSA’s extreme-condition handling tests, national crash-involvement data for the cars in the test as well as General Motors’ internal documentation regarding the Corvair’s handling.[1] NHTSA went on to contract an independent advisory panel of engineers to review the tests. This review panel concluded that “the 1960–63 Corvair compares favorably with contemporary vehicles used in the tests…the handling and stability performance of the 1960–63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic.” Former GM executive John DeLorean asserted in his 1979 book On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors that Nader’s criticisms were valid.
Car and Driver magazine criticized Nader for ignoring drivers’ failure to adapt their driving and vehicle-maintenance practices to the characteristics and requirements of the Corvair. None of the issues Nader raised were problems among owners of the Porsche 911, which had the same layout and similar suspension, nor with the less powerful Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle.
Journalist David E. Davis, in a 2009 article in Automobile Magazine, noted that despite Nader’s claim that swing-axle rear suspension were dangerous, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen all used similar swing-axle concepts during that era.”
@CupertinoJoe, I may be full of it but that’s beside the point.
Not only am I old enough to remember the Corvair (I do wish you’d get the name right), but a good friend had one that I rode in many a time. We used to do some backroads racing–he in the Corvair (2nd gen) and me in an MG. Sure they both oversteered, but that’s what made them fun. Neither of us got killed.
You say your ‘good friend’ was on the GM jury. As the Texas A&M study showed, your friend was taken for a ride. And not in a Corvair.
You also appear to think that engineers saving money on parts is a bad thing. As the old saying goes, an engineer can do for a dime what any fool can do for a dollar.
@CupertinoJoe: I owned three Corvairs (spellcheck tries to change it to Corsair) and drove them hard, including rallies and on snow and ice. Production Ford Mustangs were actually more dangerous. (I knew Caroll Shelby, and admired his Cobras and Shelby Mustangs for straight-line performance on dry pavemen. But they were almost unmanageable on ice.)
The fact that trial lawyers sold a jury a lot of nonsense doesn’t alter the fact that actual accident records don’t support Nader’s case.
FYI It was a Chevy “Corvair”
It was my first car when I turned 16. I was a reckless (and wreck-less) teenager & lived to tell about it.
I LOVED that car!
You read that and then realize people like this are running our government.
DC just needs to be nuked and bring in all fresh, non-lawyer representatives.
Fundamentally he’s right, if he goes a little far in detail. There are 2 ways to control a workforce:
1) beat them with whips
2) reward them for work well done
Those workers over there do good work, no doubt about it. But the ill will of their working conditions has a negative effect.
So a little improvement in their conditions would go very far in engendering product quality and world wide good will right back at Apple. Money well spent IMHO.
Yup, the Communist need to do some work to live up to the propaganda they say. The communist tend to talk and then forget that their companies routinely are the worst offenders to worker pay and treatment. Most of the money goes back to curropt politicians so they can ease past labor abuses and child labor.
But, Nader did have an accurate view of the situation, just did not address it to the communist party that is responsible for its people’s well being. Oh, well, maybe Cook can forward the letter to them for Nader.
I agree and, despite the our love for Apple and its products, the company could do a lot more in this regard. Ralph is right to bring it to light and we shouldn’t denegrate him because he’s pointing a finger at Apple. The blood, sweat and tears that goes into bringing us our favorite devices is often overlooked, explained away or just ignored so we can enjoy them guilt free. Apple is a very wealthy company that already shows it cares by some of the measures it’s taken in this regard, but there is more to be done. I hope Tim Cook will take this into deep consideration and not toss it aside. Al Gore being a member of the board may see the merits.
Al Gore is not likely to remember Ralph Nader fondly.
All of you on this particular sub-thread, like Nader, fail to recognize that Apple HAS required the employers of Apple products to toe the line in its contracts, limiting workers on its products to 60 hours, already trebled prevailing Chinese factory wages on their lines, and improved conditions at living areas. It is so much better in the Apple lines that there are thousands of workers looking to work on Apple assembly lines when those jobs open up. Could more be done? Yes. The sensationalist reports Nader is citing are just that, sensationalist. . . and bad only in comparison to working conditions in our markets. For example the suicide rates are actually lower at the Foxconn plants than the suicide rates at most of our Ivy League Universities among young people of similar age groups, yet our news media made them a cause celebré when it involved Apple products. . . but it didn’t. The suicides actually were at plants making Microsoft Xboxes, Nokia phones, and HP computers!
Facts are sticky things when they are brought to bear on the talking points of Liberals.
Screw Nader and the Corvair he drove in on
Hopefully the Chinese will grow their “consumer economy” and not just their “export economy”. That will help Chinese workers to live better.
I try never to agree with Nader, but MDN goes too far in the other direction. These factories produce almost if not exclusively parts for Apple’s huge production needs. If Apple stopped buying their parts, every one of those 300,000 workers would be on the street.
To say Apple has no factories in China is legally true and yet practically 100% false. Apple provides these workers’ livings, with Foxconn as middle management skimming off the top and keeping the workers in line.
MDN is probably right that Apple has done more than any other company. But as every other company has done nothing, that bar is very low. Apple claims to have higher ideals, and they have the power to effect huge positive change. Choosing not to do so is deplorable.
ty PCA for clarity. Apple has done comparatively better than a great many other miserable other companies.
As I said in another comment and it applies here too.
“Yup, the Communist need to do some work to live up to the propaganda they say. The communist tend to talk and then forget that their companies routinely are the worst offenders to worker pay and treatment. Most of the money goes back to curropt politicians so they can ease past labor abuses and child labor.
But, Nader did have an accurate view of the situation, just did not address it to the communist party that is responsible for its people’s well being. Oh, well, maybe Cook can forward the letter to them for Nader.”
Just a little reading though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn#Major_customers
Apple is just ONE of the companies Foxxconn manufactures stuff for, and there is no single factory that ONLY builds Apple stuff.
I think the PS3/4 are built in the very facility that Apple mainly uses.
But nader only wants to trash Apple, so every one else gets a pass.
There is a huge misconception in Ralph Nadar’s letter regarding “Applee factories”; they aren’t Apple factories, they are Chinese factories which assemble Apple products or supply Apple with parts. Chinese factories employ chinese workers.
Chinese workers employed by Chinese factories, mostly in main land China, should be the concern of Chinese human rights organizations or the Chinese governement exclusively.
Stop bugging Apple about other countries’ workers working conditions.
All Apple can do is having a policy or set of policies that factories are expected to meet if they want to become Apple suppliers or assemblers.
I thought this guy was OK since he did “kind of help” Steve during his 40 days in the desert. I guess I was wrong on that one. What a kook!
The gross thing about Nader is that he needs successful people to be his target. The implicit message is that whiners like Nader are good people and that successful people like Jobs are bad people. “Stop succeeding and be a whiner like me” is the implicit message. That is why people find Nader disgusting. Nader would like you to think that those bad-successful people want to impoverish others. If Apple had not created the personal computer industry, then those Chinese workers would still be wading in rice paddies. If Apple had not exploded the smartphone industry, then progress would have lagged. Billions of people around the earth would have less access to information, news, and democracy (via the smart phone) than they have today. Nader retards progress. Just retire, Ralph. Let the new generation have a voice.
Perhaps Nader should use his own consumer electronics company as an example of how to do things right.
Except…
As bad a personal attack as MDN has ever done.
It’s important to treat people with respect before you shred their thoughts. Spell his name right, not as NADAR. I doubt this was a spelling error.
And the reference to his “failed” campaigns is a cheap shot. His participation in Presidential campaigns brought important ideas into discussion. He never expected to win, but that was never the point.
Ralph Nader has done much more for America -in particular car safety and consumer rights- than probably anybody who reads or writes MDN.
Tim Cook is very aware of Ralph Nader, and he would extend to Mr Nader the courtesy which MDN has failed to here.
And by the way, I don’t agree with a lot of Nader’s Apple ideas. He hits, he misses.
Please show some class, MDN, “manners maketh Man.”
Max you see where you went wrong, “manners maketh the Man” MDN is not run by men, it is run by a few snot nosed 20 year olds that have no real life experience. They attack anyone that has a brain. MDN couldn’t run a 711 and they offer advice to all.
Yeah, and you run a Fortune 500 industry.
/s
“They attack anyone that has a brain.”
Looks like you’re safe, Joe Blow.
But, their app is so good. They really care about their readers. Really. The fact that there’s still no swipe back is perfect evidence.
Joe, STFU.
Ralph Nader is a sorry POS. He always lets Mouth overload his Ass! Plain and Simple!
Actually he has a good point, but, there is always a but, you can’t be the only company to do things that are seen as justified. The change has to come within, Chinese workers need to demonstrate, they have to organize themselves and then, just like in every other economy will the wages be fair.
First of all, the oppressive Communist regime in China will never allow unionization. Second, when the Chinese start unionizing, the jobs will go to Vietnam.
Ralph Nader is directly responsible for George W. Bush winning the White House. He should be run over by a Corvette.
No. The voters elected Bush, not Nader. Bush was a great President in some ways. Particularly his steely resolve after 911. Bush bashers always make me smile …
If Nader and the Green Party hadn’t hadn’t soaked up votes that would have most likely gone to Gore, Bush would have stayed in Waco for the first eight years of this century, though it seemed like he spent most of his presidency there anyway, and his steely resolve is what got us into Iraq, where we never belonged. And, oh yeah, the people didn’t elect Bush the Electoral College did, contrary to the popular vote, which favored Gore. Then when it got “too close to call” the Supreme Court gave it to him.
Electoral College was designed for situations like that.
If it was popular vote only, California, NY etc would be the ONLY places that national candidates would go… and those areas would rule the country. States like Rhode Island would never get a voice.
Popular vote does not work nationally.
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, everyday would be Christmas.
And I thank the stars every day that Al Gore wasn’t elected President.
Waco? Yeah, you are REALLY well informed…..
Bush left us a quagmire & a financial meltdown. When warned about the pending 9/11 attack, he spent the summer at his TX ranch cutting brush.
The voters beat Bush by a million votes, the Electoral College, Supreme Court, & brother Jeb handed it to him on a silver platter.
Wow. Don’t forgot to mention Bigfoot and Martians.
You are a perfect example of why Obama was voted in.
There are not enough words in the English dictionary to explain to you how wrong you are.
MDN said, “Apple has done more to raise conditions and pay for Chinese factory workers than any other company on earth.”
This is the key item which Nader fails to recognize. These Chinese workers were dirt poor before these electronics companies came along. The Chinese were earning, on average, less than $100 per month just a couple decades ago. Now, Mr. Nader condemns the evil capitalists who have raised China’s average income to about $1000 per month.
Comrade Ralph, you are a disappointment to our party. Apple should just return all their quarterly profit to our dear workers and all grossly earned profits in savings to the party chief, a Supreme Leader Obama.
Off to the reeducation camps with you!
To The Cubicle-Huggers at McUpChuck: what are your qualifications to criticize Ralph Nader’s concerns? You run a website that scours the web (mainly from outside contributors) looking for stories relating to Apple. That’s it. That’s all. Oh, and you charge companies to rent ad space on said site. You have not contributed anything of value for humanity and yet you feel you can sit in your little air-conditioned cubicles and spew hate and disgust towards anyone you do not understand. Sad and pathetic. Sad and pathetic.
And you spend time here reading and commenting. Says much for you, doesn’t it.
a google news link brought me to this sorry site. sorry if you are unable to grasp the crux of my message: McUpChuck is a mean-spirited operation that cares little but to agitate and irritate in a vain attempt to get simpletons to post their little rants and to sell ad space. Says much for you and your contributions to this planet, yes?
You ignore the fact that MDN is right.
Workers are paid for their productivity. He cannot compare US workers with Chinese workers since they have relatively lower productivity than US workers. The opportunity cost of Chinese worker to produce an iPhone is lower than US worker, therefore, they get to manufacture them, not because they are better at manufacturing them but because they have a relatively lower opportunity cost.
We all want everyone to be better paid, but this world has limited resources, and this is they way it is going.
Mr. Nader seems not to take into consideration the local conditions when he writes. Apple has really forced companies to do things they would not do otherwise to improve the conditions. He doesn’t seem to recognize that when he writes. I am trying to figure out why he writes now and why Apple. The only thing I can think of is because it is the most successful. Does Mr. Nader think Apple is another GM? Ralph, they are not.
Nader is unfortunately displaying the same know-it-all arrogance and ignorance us Westerners display when it comes to foreign countries.
For a start, what Westerners may consider “poverty” and “overwork” in the American context is in many cases not that in the foreign situation.
It’s simply a cultural thing. Many Asian BOSSES are known to work 12-hour days, seven days a week.
Probably if the manufacturers of Apple products were to institute a five-hour work day in a five-day work week, the workers would simply regard that as an opportunity to work at another job for seven more hours each day! And raising their salaries would not change that.
Reminds me of a true story from a few years ago where an Australian man got friendly with a Thai streetwalker. When he found out she was doing it to be able to buy a house, he bought her a house so that she would stop streetwalking.
When he went back a few years later, she was still streetwalking – to be able to buy a second house!
Totally nailed the Chinese cultural mentality. The change has to come from within, not engineered by an outside party. It will come when the Chinese adopt more western views pumped through media like Hollywood movies (and that is coming as the affluent Chinese become more aware of cultures beyond their shores) but for those off the fields, money is the holy grail to buy a better life as they define it – usually through show of material things and education (to earn more money and status), not so much time for family and personal introspection. The vast majority of Chinese workers in the country’s factories are unlikely high enough on Maslow’s hierarchy to think that way.
I would like suggest Nader read the following business week article about the cancer-related deaths at Samsung and make some noise about it:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-10/deaths-at-samsung-alter-south-koreas-corporate-is-king-mindset
Imagine dying from cancer at age 29! Chemicals used in these processes, like benzene for example, are well known carcinogens (http://m.tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/south-korea-court-links-samsung-factory-to-worker-cancer-deaths-215480.html)
Personally, I hope Apple can rid itself of their dependency on Samsung as soon as possible.
Nader ‘idea’ : Apple doubles wages etc, don;t appease shareholders…. Result: Samsung which already pays workers less (it’s got many factories in China , many with masses of underaged workers) will further undercut apple, Apple will suffer, shareholders not even getting buybacks revolt…. Board (elected by shareholders) fires Cook,.. Ive and federighi etc (who NOT want to work under an “Elop” ) leave… GOODBYE APPLE, GOODBYE FOXCONN and Apple’s jobs.
Carlos Slim richest man in Mexico ““The only way to fight poverty is with employment,”
The Best way for Big Mouths who want to ‘help’ workers is to start companies and hire thousands of people…
(Apple has so much money and able to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of workers is that they are GOOD at what they are doing. Nobody would invest in a Nader ‘no profit company’ . or he would run them into the ground so his actual contribution to workers would be UNEMPLOYMENT. Nader, dude get a clue…. look at the videos … WORKERS TRAVEL FOR DAYS TO LINE UP AT THE DOORS TO WORK AT FOXCONN FACTORIES because they have practically the best pay and benefits in China)
Apple is already trying to open factories in USA to build Mac Pros, glass etc (and they need MONEY to do this) , give Cook a chance and don’t stab Apple …
Apparently if you’re successful then you become the target for all kinds of trolls. Jealous trolls, journalist trolls, Wall Street trolls, and Ralph Nader.
Oh dear, FOXCON, Here I will pay you double for the manufacturing of the iPhone, if only you paid your workers twice as much. Also every worker gets there own room, bathroom, kitchen and TV. They get a college education and a car, bike and $400 per month for food. If you don’t take my money and give it to the people, I will take my business to umm… somewhere else.
Heck I will make the iPhone in America and pay our US Citizens 20 time more for the same job. They work 40 hours per week and earn $70,000 per year, before benefits.
Because we have so much money, we are going to do what we ask you, sell the iPhone for $200 less, and give money back to our shareholders. Because we believe in break even.
We are Apple, the non-profit organization. We just filed yesterday and from now on, every iPhone purchase is tax deductible!!!
/s
I’m all for protectionism. Free trade is dumb. US workers get the boot, so companies can send jobs to wherever people will work for nothing. This country’s workers have been sold down the river by a small group of con artists. Too bad.
Ronald Reagan was protectionist. Ask Honda and Toyota.
Apple products should be made in the USA. Apple would still be incredibly profitable. Too bad, greedy bastards run everything. Oh well.
two thirds of Apple’s profits come from overseas
following your “protectionist” logic maybe Apple should incorporate off shore or something? Soon China’s Apple’s profits might match USA’s, so should Apple become a China company?
Apple is the largest taxpayer in USA (with USA tax rate around 30%), employs thousands of USA workers and has opened and supported factories to make Mac Pros, glass etc in USA (not even counting the retail operations) . Dozens of components of iPhones, Macs etc are made in USA and sent to China , most of the high paid design (thousands of engineers etc) and admin jobs are in the USA (why do you think they are building a super big new campus in California? I tell you many countries would love to give Apple tax breaks to have that NON POLLUTING high paid jobs in their countries… )
Go look up the Smoot-Hawley tariff and don’t embarrass yourself like this again.
-jcr
Ralph,
Who else makes electronic devices in China? Checked the origination content of your Ford lately? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial if Walmart answered your clarion call?
Or do you mean like how we pay people in this country?
Like teachers and retirement home workers?
How about the pre-school worker who looks after your child?
Police officers? Social workers? What about that single mother who works two jobs because her healthcare, rent, groceries and energy bills eat up every cent she makes?
What don’t you look around this country first and write an open letter then?
Oh wait, not too much publicity in that is there?
Ralph Nader is the only leftist that I have a significant respect for. He is one of the (very) few hippies to put his money where his socialist mouth is. For that, I have a lot of respect for him. That said, he of course needs to tone down the idealism, although what he is saying has some merit. His argument would have been a lot more convincing if he acknowledged that Apple is the clear leader in the principles he is promoting. Unfortunately, his brand of idealism leaves no room for pragmatics. In the end, it’s kind of refreshing to hear some comments from someone with genuine conviction, even if he’s very wrong about Apple. Hopefully he will amend his stance so that a productive discussion can be had.
By attacking the only Foxconn client that has done something to insure better working conditions while letting Apple’s competitors off scott free, Nader shows he doesn’t care about the Chinese workers and is just headline grabbing for himself.
BTW – How much money is Nader giving the Chinese workers?
Ralph needs to polish his math, too. If we’re cutting the hours of 300k workers in half, then we need 600k workers. And if we’re paying them all double, well, I’ll let an engineer figure it out but it’s a lot more than Ralph says.
a lot of WORKERS busted their balls making money to invest in 401s, RRSPs (canada), bank mutual funds, insurance savings plans etc which have aapl.
So Nader the fighter for workers don’t give a fuk for THESE workers? what about a reasonable life for these workers when the retire? many won’t have health care from their jobs anymore etc. So Nader doesn’t think retirement funds should grow? WHAT IS HIS SOLUTION for RETIREMENT? go on welfare?
I’ve hardly Icahn but i’ve got aapl stock.
Nader doesn’t have to worry himself as he’s multi millionaire, made a lot of money when he was younger in stocks, owning multiple millions. Nader famously says he ‘gives’ a lot of money to his pet projects (organizations founded by him) but he can do so as he’s got secured income, he easily makes tens of thousands of dollars giving a single speech. He hobnobs with billionaires, his latest scheme was to run a political party supported by billionaires (to divest itself from needing common folk to support it like other parties),
wikipedia:
“According to the mandatory fiscal disclosure report that he filed with the Federal Election Commission in 2000, Nader owned more than $3 million worth of stocks and mutual fund shares; his single largest holding was more than $1 million worth of stock in Cisco Systems, Inc. He also held between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of shares in the Magellan Fund.[103]”
I hate articles like this, with people talking out of their butts. I lived in China almost 15 years ago and at that time the workers made around $100, and you know what? Most saved half of what they made. Sure, they lived in dorms and had several to a room, but again this was better than their homes in the villages of rural China. We love to lecture China, but with a single digit savings rate against a 42% savings rate in China, I wouldn’t be casting stones. Just because they don’t make what US workers make, then it is unfair? Get a grip. Spoken like someone who has never ventured outside the US, never mind lived anywhere else.
Nader, like most other leftards, has an obnoxious habit of assuming that his desires are more important than the desires of those who earn the money he envies.
Speaking as an Apple shareholder: Fuck you, Ralph.
-jcr
How can any sensible human being disagree with what Nader is saying? MDN’s response is disgusting to say the least. According to MDN, Apple becomes a charity if they decide to share a small portion of their profits with the people who work hard to build their products and make these profits possible!
The response of so many of the commentators here is equally appalling. What is wrong with you?
Bottom line: Nader is an idiot.
There is something to be said for apple raising the wages of those in the factories that make their products, that would not only be a good PR bump but a huge competitive advantage. If apple could force a wage increase across the board in china it would really put a hurt on apples competitors, as apple is the only company with the profit margins to handle the increase.
im unfortunately not a millionaire but I do depend a AAPL
Stock for my retirement.
Thanks to Ralph Nader, America was forced to endure
8 years of George Bush and Dick Cheney ‘s leadership
Which nearly bankrupted our country and left thousands of our
Soldiers and others dead and wounded.
Now we have Obama to take that “near bankruptcy” to a complete bankruptcy.
1500 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan under Obama who isn’t even committed to win that war — the war he called “the good war.” How can you send Americans to their deaths for a job you don’t even plan to finish? Only a POS would do that.
I assume he was dead he was around when I was a teen and I am nearly a pensioner now.
Sorry, but socialism doesn’t work. Doesn’t work in France, doesn’t work in Europe and didn’t work in the UK in the 60s and 70s, I know, I was there.
Do you not realize the irony of what you are saying, when it is Apple itself that chooses the communist China instead of the capitalist USA to manufacture its products? Do you not realize that without what you are calling a failed system, Apple would not be able to realize such profits?
People here are afraid for their pensions. How would what Nader is saying negatively affect their pensions? Don’t you people realize that it is precisely the skewed distribution of wealth between capital and labor that forces almost all americans into debt? US has the biggest public and private debt in the world. Remove the petrodollar privilege (which is essentially a free ride on the back of the rest of the world) and the whole economy will go down in the sinkhole…
People here are afraid for their pensions. How would what Nader is saying negatively affect their pensions? ”
you are so naive it is appalling.
some pensions have aapl
others people planning retirement might have a lot of aapl in their private investments.
What Nader suggests “no buybacks” and other “screw the shareholders” would make the big investors BAIL OUT and aapl will fall. Aapl fell 40% just a few years ago just from analysts comments basically.
if other companies did as Nader said their stock would also probably tank, so pension funds which are supposed to grow at a certain amount a year – compounded growth (otherwise you probably will never get the amount you want) – might actually shrink.
Maybe YOU work for something like the Govt. with SECURED pensions , most people don’t.
—-
foxconn already pays better wages than most Chinese workers earn with way better benefits and auditing (by labour organizations) , that’s why people fight to work there.
Pay them double for half the hours (4X pay) would be silly, WHY DOESN’T NADER SUGGEST USA WORKERS GET FOUR TIMES THEIR PAY. for example those many paid workers in HIS organizations (secretaries, tech staff, janitors etc) do they get 4 times the pay of other people elsewhere with the same jobs??? Pay is linked to the LOCAL JOB MARKET…
Nader is a multi millionaire and in the past has refused to disclose his tax returns….
I can go on and on
Buyback does not affect the long term trend of the stock. Investment and a strong portfolio of products does. Apple is the best example. Financial engineering will benefit the big speculators, not the long term small investors.
On the other hand, paying your manufacturing workers more than what your competitors could possibly match, can become a tremendous competitive advantage. Nader’s proposal in no way hurts Apple’s profitability, even in the short term.
As for the rest of your comment, Nader has often criticized the offshoring of american jobs. If Apple did the manufacturing in US, I am sure he would make the same proposal for the benefit of American workers.
really?
so why don’t you show me he pays his workers several times the average for the kind of job?
buybacks alone is not the issue , it’s how Apple TREATs shareholders. If big shareholders think Apple doesn’t care about them they will bail and the stock would tank. 70% of aapl is held by big funds and investors.
Apple already is despised by many big funds and investors it’s got Half the P.E of Google, less than msft and less than the S&P AVERAGE.
the stock only started to rise up again recently when Cook initiated dividends and buybacks and was more responsive to big investors.
Buybacks reduce the number of shares thus reducing dividend payouts, the math shows that long term Apple saves more than dividends alone.
The low average wage is precisely the issue. I don’t think Nader implied that Apple is unique in this regard among its competitors. Everybody took advantage of “globalization” and out shored jobs to low wage countries with very weak labor protection laws.
I don’t want to argue theoretically with you about the relation between buyback, prices, p/E etc. Apple’s history is I think the best answer. Apple managed to become the most valuable company in the world without any financial engineering tricks. Besides, nobody is arguing for extremes. Nader’s proposal is to distribute a very moderate portion of profits towards the manufacturing workers. How can anybody object to this?
People are being taught the wrong theories on economics. The result is that we are back to 18 century as far as wealth distribution goes…
one more time did Nader pay his workers (his a multi millionaire with many companies) several times the average going rate for workers in their area? (he’s suggesting that for Apple in China). Please show me he’s paying cleaning staff 50 bucks an hour.
Nader is doing an absurd thing with this apple issue and roping in the idiots to support him.
Foxconn employs half a million workers, many don’t work for apple , so how is it going to work? (Please note idiots just like Nader keeps referring to ‘Apple’ factories, Apple doesn’t own them, hire workers or manage them) Are those tens of thousands in Foxconn working on Msft Xboxes, Dell and HP, Nintendo etc stuff going to get paid more? If Apple pays the workers on its lines more the rest will rebel … And if Foxconn raises wages across the board (impossible actually due to financial constraints), THE REST OF ITS CLIENTS WILL GO TO SOME OTHER ASSEMBLER…. Foxconn will die and all the workers : UNEMPLOYED.
Also What about the hundreds of millions of workers elsewhere already getting Less than foxconn NOW? Why doesn’t nader care about them but picking on the less than 1% (already well paid workers) doing Apple stuff? Workers travel from all over China to work at Foxconn because it’s got some of the best wages and benefits today.
So Nader[s suggestion pointing up apple is non workable , picking on a name brand employing a tiny fraction (who are relatively already well paid) of China’s billion population is only a publicity stunt to shore up his image.
as for the stock your arguments keep getting sillier (I give you PE and dividend/buyback maths, you give me fluff) : one like I said the stock is STiLL currently undervalued, Two: the reason its gone up recently is partly due to dividends and buybacks and better response to big shareholders (who hold 70% of aapl stock) and the reason it’s gone up over the years is that it’s doing what its doing and you all want to CHANGE it. (you see you’ve defeated your own argument, you said Apple has been doing well for years yet you want to change it)
“How can anybody object to this?”
you keep saying that because it’s an emotional red herring argument, implying that we who object to Nader’s unworkable stupidity don’t care for workers which is B.S that doesn’t work on the logically astute. To show the fallacy of that I can also state, the USA should give half its wealth to poor countries as there are over a billion starving people , paraphrasing you ” how can anybody object to this (giving half of the abundance would not cause americans to starve) ” , don’t you care about starving people? ”
see? thing is whether a plan is workable or not…
—
I’ve worked for over 10 years in Asia. What is your experience?
Other than calling names, you know little.
First, Nader is not targeting Apple specifically. What he is suggesting is consistent with what he is advocating all his life on workers’ rights, irrespective of nationality. You don’t realize that paying low wages to the Chinese puts pressure on american wages too. You don’t understand how “globalization” works.
Second, you believe that paying more to the Chinese workers would somehow reduce the disposable income of americans. Even if it is the stock holders you have in mind, this is nonsense. What might affect is the earnings of speculators not the long-term investors.
Let me repeat. Steve Jobs created the most valuable company in the world without any financial engineering. No paybacks. What does this tell you about the long-run relationship between price and buybacks? You know who was the champion of financial engineering the last 15 years or so? IBM. The company that also pioneered the offshoring of american jobs.
Third, Nader is not suggesting that Apple should not invest in US, or increase wages in the US. On the contrary.
Last, the whole argument regarding Foxconn workers rebelling and the rest of the Chinese economy disintegrating, is ludicrous to say the least. There is no space here to talk about how this can be done.
As I said previously, you trivialize the argument by taking it to the extreme. Nader is suggesting a redistribution of a very moderate portion of profits towards the manufacturing base. This may very well put pressure on Apple’s competitors and will more than likely benefit the american workers in the long run. Because, the pressure on american wages is proportional to the pressure on chinese wages. This is international economics 101 for you.
one more time: you support nader for increasing foxconn and only for Apple lines SEVERAL times the norm (double pay, half hours) .
so I’m still waiting for you to show me Nader stats that he pays HIS workers several times the going wage in USA.
Apple already pressured Foxconn to increase wages several times so that Foxconn workers ALREADY have good wages as I’ve pointed out several times ( seriously every time I point out facts vs your fallacies you ignore it but go into a different tangent ) but not for Nader?
if Nader was SERIOUS about helping Chinese workers instead of TRING TO GAIN PUBLICITY FOR HIMSELF and get support from ignorant idiots shouldn’t he be saying:
“Corporations in China should follow Apple’ excellent example:
Apple has : pressured Foxconn to increase wages and cut overtime so that now Foxconn has one of the best working environments in China,
We also laud Apple’s auditing of Foxconn and it’s other suppliers and PUTTING THOSE RESULTS MONTHLY ONLINE. Which practically NONE of it’s competitors or other manufactures are doing
-We also applaud Apple giving tuition fees for workers who want to take courses , stopping suppliers from using underaged workers and giving the handful of underaged workers discovered scholarships to finish their schooling. Apple has infact terminated contracts with suppliers who consistently violate their worker policies and unlike companies like Samsung which according to China Labour Watch has near 50% underaged workers in some factories…
etc etc”
DOING THE ABOVE pointing to reality of What Apple is currently doing and asking the 99.99& of the OTHER companies in china to follow suit makes more sense for the general well being of workers in china and elsewhere. That would Help the 99.99% who are currently having worse issues than Foxconn apple workers. (But of course People have a habit f attacking apple as its good publicity vs common sense, for example at the peak of the so called suicide scandal at foxconn the suicide rate there as percentage of workers was lower than the suicide rate of college students in the USA — approximate age similarity — and way lower than the suicide rate of china in general )
but Nader doesn’t do what i suggest because he is less interested in really helping chinese workers, BASHING APPLE which GETS HIM MORE PUBLICITY regardless of how absurd it is.
you keep pointing to apple’s success yet you as I’ve pointed out WANT TO CHANGE APPLE instead of allowing their management to do what it needs to . as for Jobs Apple stock was growing at around 40% every year (Fortune: under Steve Jobs apple stock has ” approximate 170-fold return in about 16 years or roughly 38% compound annual growth rate ” )., the growth rate of aapl over the last 3 years has been ZERO as it’s just past the high attained 3 years ago. ( when I point out things like PE ratios you ignore it yet You say I know nothing about finance ! its your ignorance that is obvious here.
JohnG using your same arguments:
there’s like I said over a billion starving people out there.
why are you typing posts with a PC or phone or something?
isn’t that a frivolity when people are starving, Shouldn’t you SELL your tv, Pc — that device probably is equal to many years pay in some countries and save many lives (the monthly salary in Cuba is 15-20 bucks a month, and cuba is relatively ‘prosperous’ ) etc? Aren’t saving a starving child more important than TV or PC? Paraphrasing you.. “How can anybody object to this”?
seems like a direct workable intervention on your part since you seem to so concerned instead of complaining about Apple, go out in the street and start hawking your internet device (you can’t use ebay cause you are no longer connected) …
Of course people like you would only talk but never really take action that would cause you PERSONAL PAIN.
of course my arguments are verging on absurd but so is the one dealing with apple but because it’s a huge corp which people love to hate,and people love to hate shareholders too (as they are ‘rich’) , it’s ok to diss apple with absurd ideas.
at the end nobody really does what I suggest– sell everything — as even the most liberal person understands : the real solution to poverty etc is for investors (shareholders) who think they would get a good return to invest in companies and thus provide jobs and reduce poverty.
Some foxconn workers say they earn in one month more than their farmer parents in a year…
This is such a frivolous argument. Nobody asked Cook to sell his car to give it to the poor. I think I am waisting my time here…
All this chatter about Nader is going to elevate the terror threat level.
The Nader reference is at 3:15.
Sorry, but Ralph is right even if I’m a hare holder that isn’t a millionaire. That money should be in circulation, not in bank accounts. People make an economy grow not buy backs.
$500 per month, really? The average income in China is $153 per month. Airline pilots make $761 and Computer programers make $252 per month. So he’s proposing that Chinese workers in factories should make more then airline pilots?!?
http://www.worldsalaries.org/china.shtml
Thanks for the ten year-old data. Now, get up to date.
$500/month is still an enormous amount for unskilled labor in China.
which of Hon Hai’s 200,000 workers does Nader want Apple to subsidize? Does a worker’s salary get cut if they are moved into a different assembly line? How does Hon Hai segregate its Apple Double Salary workers for the other assemblyline workers so they don’t get the crap beaten out of them for their double wages? WTF is Nader talking about? Why the hell would we subsidize a Taiwanese/Chinese for profit company? This makes no sense from the LEFT, RIGHT or CENTER.
Unfortunately, Ralph Nader is shooting his mouth off with little knowledge of the subject. China is the only location in the world that can supply and sustain a workforce of skilled workers large enough for the factories required for Apple products. No city in the United States could provide 450,000 employees for a plant. Keeping up with even normal attrition rates, would be impossible.
for all those people who are bashing Apple for not building in the USA,
remember Steve Jobs tried building in the U.S.
His Next computers were built in Fremont california.
The were state of the art, with UNIX OS far in advance of Windows…
BUT practically nobody bought.
Did anybody CARE it was built in USA? nope, only COST.
People happily bought cheap PCs made in Asia
Jobs even begged the US government to buy them but they didn’t . Did the USA government care about USA jobs : NOPE.
(Tim Cook used to work for Compaq and IBM before Jobs hired him to fix his supply chain).
Even today apple haters deride Macs for being TOO EXPENSIVE… don’t have to go far just read the troll comments here on Mac articles.
Apple is Building Macs in the USA but they are Mac Pros with huge sticker prices which can pay for the expensive labour. So Apple IS doing USA manufacturing IF it is possible. Even then I’ve read dozens of blogs and probably PC fans slamming the Mac Pro saying their made in China PCs are as fast as the Pro but Cheaper….
I’ve NEVER seen Windows Power User blogs and magazines saying people should buy Mac Pros because it’ll help USA jobs…
The USA government recently put Samsung (which has many factories in China) as the preferred supplier but Apple is not on the list…
Also WHICH ONE OF YOU HERE BEATING UP ON APPLE FOR NOT BUILDING THE USA HAS A PC OR CELL PHONE OR TABLET MADE IN THE USA??
Given all the above saying Apple is evil because it manufacturers in China is silly…
Really Nader worried about Chinese work please come enjoy us in Florida where companies still paying $5.00 per hour they stock 1980’s
Fuck the Chinese
Most times i tend to agree with Nader because i always be for the workers. Not out of a political ideology, but out of a sense of fairness and justice. It is the right thing.
But on this, i disagree. If would have been more powerful if Nader addressed his letter not just to Apple, but to all the businesses using Chinese factories for their goods.
I understand also that this is political grandstanding, but it missed the mark by not using his pulpit to address a problem that is much bigger than just Apple.
Wooh-ooh-ooh… waAHHHHHHH!!!!.. AAAAAHHHH!!!!… AHHHHHHH!!!!…
Pants up, don’t loot!
“Ralph Nader, a five-time failed U.S. presidential candidate, ….”
Surely you could come up with more irrelevant comments to start the article with. Obviously not worth reading since you didn’t put the effort into coming up with other distractions.
I’m what you call poor. I have what I call my “food stamp” free phone from SafeLink. And I thank God for it. Not sure where it came from — Heaven?
Nader could’ve just left it at the GREAT IDEA to cut worker hours, increase pay and simply hire more Chinese workers, glad to have a good job.
$5 Billion is nothing to Apple, tax evading scum they are.
Expecting Apple to take $130 Billion and do what Nader suggests is ridiculous.
Tim Cook can move the headquarters back to California and PAY TAXES like his sheep-customers do. That would cut into the $130 B – good!