Apple Computer Hoards 54 Billion In Cash, Makes Products in Abusive Conditions in China

[Better Believe It]

Apple Computer Hoards Cash, Makes Products in Abusive Conditions
by Adele Stan
November 2, 2011

Go to any gathering, and you’ll find nearly every person carrying an iPhone or an iPad, despite the Apple Computer’s dismal record on labor practices. Apple executives must be laughing all the way to the bank — their Swiss bank, that is.

In its fourth quarter earnings report released last week, Apple Computer revealed that 2/3 of its on-hand cash – some $54 billion — is squirreled away outside the boundaries of the United States, presumably to avoid paying its fair share of taxes. In the meantime, reports Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), a Hong Kong-based group, Apple’s major manufacturing contractors routinely subject employees to forced overtime, wage theft and no breaks — and even unprotected exposure to toxins.

Apple, together with rival tech firm Google, have been lobbying for a “tax holiday” that would allow them to bring some of those billions into the U.S. at a lower tax rate, promising that to do so would create jobs. But, as we reported, a similar measure tried in 2004 created few jobs, and instead rewarded companies that had kept their money overseas. Where Apple has created jobs is in China, where the workers who make its slick products are made to work in deplorable conditions.

A new SACOM report, “The iSlave Behind the iPhone: Foxconn Workers in Central China,” examines conditions at the Apple Computer contractor’s plant since the suicides of nine workers last year made big news. One thing that has changed: workers were given a raise — to all of $1.18 an hour. But workers are often shorted overtime pay, SACOM reports, and Foxconn even illegally withheld, during the Chinese New Year, payment for overtime already worked in order to prevent workers from taking the traditional holiday to visit their families.

Read the full article at:

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/11/02/apple-computer-hoards-cash-makes-products-in-abusive-conditions/

Read or download the SACOM report at:

http://sacom.hk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/20110924-islave-behind-the-iphone.pdf

[demosincebirth]

1. What's new? All those Billions that Apple made and is making ffrom those

trinkets they sell come from workers making less that 5 bucks a day in China

I wonder if Jobs knew that? :sarcasm:

[Poll_Blind]

2. Grift different. nt

PB

[Scuba]

3. And the Republicans think they're over-regulated. n/t

[closeupready]

4. K&R

nt

[RKP5637]

5. K&R !!! n/t

[david_vincent]

6. Meet the new

shitty monolithic scruples-bereft computer corporation behemoth, same as the old shitty monolithic scruples-bereft computer corporation behemoth.

[Brickbat]

7. If it says "Made in China," it's best to assume it's been made under abusive conditions, no matter

what brand name is on it.

[MattSh]

8. True, and these companies all make their stuff in the same factories as Apple...

Foxconn makes consumer electronics for a number of well-known companies, including:

Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
Amazon.com (United States)
Apple Inc. (United States)
ASRock (Taiwan)
Intel (United States)
Cisco (United States)
Hewlett-Packard (United States)
Dell (United States)
Nintendo (Japan)
Nokia (Finland)
Microsoft (United States)
MSI (Taiwan)
Motorola (United States)
Sony Ericsson (Japan/Sweden)
Vizio (United States)

Just for those who think they're better than thou because they don't use Apple products.

[Javaman]

13. +1

Plus most of the components from old computers are shipped to china and india for "recycling", is nothing more than toxic waste sites with slave labor.

[Laluchacontinua]

17. I think the point is that Apple makes the most profit off those abusive conditions (because of their

mark-up)?

[girl gone mad]

22. Very understated.

Foxconn's margin = $7

Yes, Apple's markup is huge.

via http://www.creditwritedowns.com">credit writedowns:

[Ed Suspicious]

9. Money spent on business expenses, ie hiring employees

is tax deductable. I'm so sick of the lower taxes creates jobs meme. Higher taxes incentivises reinvestment in the company thereby creating jobs. Not the other way around. Lower taxes incentivises hoarding.

[zbdent]

10. and I want to see the bridge and "infrastructure" that

tax cuts built ...

[Marrah_G]

11. They are no better then other mega corporations.

[Leopolds Ghost]

12. People idolize Steve Jobs, but really his co. is all about two things: stealing from the best

And trying to kill off paperback books and bookstores in America.

I only sided with Apple versus Microsoft because Microsoft had monopolized software for IBM compatibles, which used to be an open market. But Apple has always, always been a closed market.

[TheMadMonk]

15. And still no fanbois? A refreshing change to most stories remotely...

...critical of the Great Saviour, the foil to the great satan Microsoft.

Jobs was never an inovator. Just a sometimes successful marketer of other people's ideas.

[OhioChick]

14. Greedy bastards n/t

[snooper2]

16. The "forgotten founder" Apple Ron Wayne illustrated the first Apple logo and wrote Apple I manual

Apple wasn’t started in a garage, it was started in a bedroom at 11161 Crist Drive in Los Altos.
Apple DOS 3.1, which was the first disk-based operating system for any Apple computer, was released in June 1978 for the Apple II.
The Apple I Cost $666.66
Apple’s Macintosh product line took over from the Apple II line in the early ’90s.
On January 6, 2004, Apple introduced the first iPod mini. It had 4 GB of storage and featured for the first time the "click wheel".
Apple Computer, Inc. was sued by Apple Records over trademark violations in 1989.

[Mudoria]

18. I hope Jobs next reincarnation is as a Foxconn worker

[Angry Dragon]

19. The article I read on AOL the other day said $80.6 billion

and over $60 billion was overseas

[Better Believe It]

20. I haven't read that article. Please link it if you can find it. Thanks!

[Angry Dragon]

21. this is what I read

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/how-much-is-apple-worth_n_1035973.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

23. Support Michael Dell, Dell Computer and HP'sMeg Whitman

They have the major market share on computers