Think Different? Think, Again.... Apple Lost Its Soul

NEW YORK — Kudos to The New York Times for finally having the GUTS to take on the horrors of outsourcing so much of our manufacturing base to The People's Republic of China, where workers' rights, health, safety, and environmental regulations are virtually nonexistent—and child labor lives on.

As long-time Apple users, we are SICKENED that a company long associated with innovation, creativity, and the progressive sociopolitical "aura" (of its users) is, underneath its sleek exterior, behaving like a venal corporate zombie, no less environmentally and socially destructive as Koch Industries, ExxonMobile, BP, and other well-known corporate denizens.

If, as Mitt Romney says, "Corporations are people, my friend," Then, shame on you, Apple. Shame on YOU, as people.

Apple users deserve better. Apple's strong reputation for innovation, style, quality, and execution is peerless, providing Apple with one of the most intensely loyal customer bases in the world. Indeed, Apple's customers have demonstrated for decades a deep-seated willingness to pay for a big premium for innovation, ease-of-use, and quality. Thus, with typically the most expensive offerings in each product category, Apple's profit consistently ranks among the world's highest in ANY business sector.

There is simply NO REASON that Apple cannot "Think Different" and transform itself into an exemplar of social, environmental, and geopolitical responsibility.

Without passing on additional costs to its consumers, Apple should either bring its production back to the United States, where the new jobs would only add to its corporate, government, education, and individual consumer base; or, it can begin to apply strict US environmental standards and work rules to its operations overseas—or, it can do both. 

Otherwise, if Apple continues to allow its subcontractors to expose those who build iPods, iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs to brutal, abusive, unsafe working conditions, it risks losing a hard-fought reputation as the digital platform of choice for the world's growing "creative class."

It's not too late. But, Apple needs to become aggressively proactive in protecting the health, safety, and well-being of its workers—globally. To survive, Apple must become the global leader, the exemplar of good corporate citizenry, from Cupertino to Shenzhen. For Apple, it's time to "Think different." It's time to make Apple's manufacturing process as inspiring as its products. And, it's time to bring more of it's manufacturing work back home. It's time to stop gutting America's manufacturing base, and its families, in exchange for child labor, environmental degradation, and abusive workplaces.

With revenue rising to a record $13.03 BILLION in net profits on $46.33 BILLION in revenue for the final quarter of 2011—and a valuation of $426 billion—Apple can certainly afford to behave responsibly.

The luster came off The Complainer’s MacBook Pro this week. And, with every keystroke, we can’t help but wonder, “Who paid for this wonderful piece of technology with blood, with environmental degradation, with their life?”As of now, we at The Complainer are boycotting ALL Apple products until they agree to substantially improve their labor, environmental, and trade practices.

Wake up, Tom! The American Dream is Gone (Except for the Truly Exceptional)

NEW YORK — Tom Friedman is at it again. In "Average is Over," Tom basically argues that, unless you can do something REALLY SPECIAL, your chances of partaking in the American Dream are just about nil.

In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra — their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment. Average is over.

Agreed. And this is even more frightening:

Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. As they say, if horses could have voted, there never would have been cars. But there’s been an acceleration. ....“In the 10 years ending in 2009, [U.S.] factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs — about 6 million in total — disappeared.”

And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Last April, Annie Lowrey of Slate wrote about a start-up called “E la Carte” that is out to shrink the need for waiters and waitresses: The company “has produced a kind of souped-up iPad that lets you order and pay right at your table. The brainchild of a bunch of M.I.T. engineers, the nifty invention, known as the Presto, might be found at a restaurant near you soon. ... You select what you want to eat and add items to a cart. Depending on the restaurant’s preferences, the console could show you nutritional information, ingredients lists and photographs. You can make special requests, like ‘dressing on the side’ or ‘quintuple bacon.’ When you’re done, the order zings over to the kitchen, and the Presto tells you how long it will take for your items to come out. ... Bored with your companions? Play games on the machine. When you’re through with your meal, you pay on the console, splitting the bill item by item if you wish and paying however you want. And you can have your receipt e-mailed to you. ... Each console goes for $100 per month. If a restaurant serves meals eight hours a day, seven days a week, it works out to 42 cents per hour per table — making the Presto cheaper than even the very cheapest waiter.”

No kidding, Tom. YIKES!! But, none of this is anything new. Tom has been saying that "average is over" for quite a while. The problem is that half the population has a "below-average" IQ. What can they possibly do to become "above average?" Smile a little harder (through whatever untreated physical or emotional pain they are experiencing) as they clean a .01-percenter's toilet? Or, sing a little tune as they change an elderly 1-percenter's sleeping diapers? Or, work 3 minimum wage jobs just to pay for their spouse's dental work? Wait, are we sure we want them to smile? it might reveal their rotted teeth (from a lifetime without good nutrition or dental care)... COME ON, TOM. Not everyone is an artisan, an "Iron Chef," or a Mother Teresa.

REAL PEOPLE ARE HURTING. We've shredded their safety net, while simultaneously vaporizing the jobs that "average people" used to do.

Moreover, of the other half of the population who are "above-average," only about 5% have seen any increase in income growth over the past couple of decades. Why? Well, being above-average isn't enough in our increasingly winner-take-all society. It's not. With RARE exceptions, our society is only working out for those who are lucky enough to be born physically and emotionally healthy to married, healthy, telegenic, college-educated parents (preferably with advanced degrees), who earn more than $300,000 (enough for the children to afford a vibrant, safe neighborhood, and elite pre-K through grad/med/law school educations—including tutoring, gifted programs, music, art, and dance lessons, and athletic coaching); and access to a strong social network of business, finance, and educational connections. Wake-up, Tom. For all but a few, The American Dream is just that—a dream. Our survival, as a nation, is going to require something more than nostrums to "The 95%" on how they need to be exceptionally exceptional at something "The 1%" wants and needs.

Our society is going to need either a safety net for the 95% of the population whose lives and livelihoods are becoming more tenuous by the moment—or, we are going slide deeper into the Third World abyss of hyper-stratification, in which 95% of the population lives in impoverished servitude, enslaved to an inter-generational ownership class of landed-gentry and the like. 

Tom, it's time to be creative. We need to start thinking about how our society can leverage its wealth to the benefit of the larger society and not just the real "lucky duckies" born with the ergonomic, hypoallergenic, certified organic spoons in their mouths. We need to think about ways to use our productivity to create more time for family, education, and faith.

Perhaps, Tom, you ought to wax poetic on the 30-hour workweek; or, extended family leave (with pay); or, LOWERING the retirement age to allow more workers into the wage pool; or, INCREASING social security benefits for the many, by eliminated it for those who don't need them, and thus, encouraging older workers to retire EARLIER. What about a sliding scale for college tuition, with the .00001-percenters like Mitt Romney paying $1 million for Harvard tuition, so that a middle class family can pay $1000?

Quit whining, Tom. Become part of the solution. Yes, we need to provide more job training; increased access to outstanding pre-K through grad/med/law school educations—including the aforementioned gifted programs, music, art, and dance lessons, and athletics. But, the 95% also needs better access to good, consistent nutrition, low/no-cost medical and dental care; affordable, safe housing; reliable, efficient transportation; and healthier family environments, in which the stress of economic survival doesn't inhibit child development.

It's easy to read to your kids, if you're a Romney. It's a lot tougher when you're working three jobs to pay the mortgage on an overpriced home that you bought in order keep your kids in a "good" school district—or, paying off the student loans you took out to finance your third career (nursing), because the first two were outsourced out of existence.

BTW, Tom, your current work, is just about "average." If you were truly "above average," you would think a whole lot bigger. Wake up and smell the Fair Trade coffee, Mr. Friedman—most of us can't afford it, especially those of us who didn't marry into multibillion-dollar fortunes.

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Noto bene: If you want more of our running critique of Mr. Friedman, please see: "Wake up, Tom. Your Head is Flat...."