Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
What I find interesting in this thread is how few people see Apple as just a company.
There are some who see it as the embodiment of evil, waiting to pounce. There are some who see it as some sort of holy order, never to be challenged or questioned. But there are very few who see it as, quite simply, a company out for its own best interests like every other company, taking neither good nor evil into account, but merely image and profits.
Folks ... this is a corporation we're talking about. They don't have your best interests at heart. They don't have anyone's best interests at heart except for their management and stockholders. And they are not out to be evil because evil is fun -- having fun doesn't make money for the people with a legal right to have money made on their behalf. They're a corporation, no different under the sleek white skin than Microsoft or Hasbro or General Mills. They exist for two reasons: 1) to transfer money from you to them by charging as much as possible for as little as possible, and 2) to continue to exist in order to continue to make money. They're clearly very good at this. They're not good. They're not evil. Good and evil don't even come into their equations.
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That's fundamentally wrong. Companies are run by people who make decisions. Those decisions can be good or bad, or even evil.
A company can make money by serving the best interests of their customers and doing good work for their communities, or they can make money by breaking safety laws, and dumping poisons into the water supply.
"Evil" in Apple's case is hyperbole, but decisions that make them money can be and sometimes are absolutely good or bad, and it's perfectly legitimate and potentially effective to tell a company 'we like your products, but if you don't change your policies, THEN we will shop elsewhere.'
ApK