Re:Apple to contribute to U.S. teen's education for spotting...
by KorematsuFred on Friday February 08, 2019 @04:30PM
(#19118879)
The difference being that apple earns its own money which we have volunteerly given to them for iphones. Royal titles etc. however are from taxpayers money a bit like US aid to other countries or subsidized housing etc.
Re:Apple to contribute to U.S. teen's education for spotting...
by anth_anm on Friday February 08, 2019 @06:28PM
(#19119636)
Taxpayers money like the 10s of billions apple stashed overseas until they (and others) managed to lobby for massive corportate tax breaks?
Before someone gives me the standard "don't hate the player hate the game" speech. I do hate the game. It's fundamentally broken and I think we need to do a 2.0 version.
Re:Apple to contribute to U.S. teen's education for spotting...
by kbenson on Friday February 08, 2019 @05:29PM
(#19119301)
Apple's money comes from money we have voluntarily given them to own one of their phones and to be part of (and actually we are then forced to be a part of) their market, since only Apple approved software can run).
A government's (a monarchy is a form of government) money comes from taxes from people who wish to be part of that system and benefit from the security and markets it provides (otherwise they can leave. Sort of. But in the past they likely could), and they are limited in what they can do because the government enforces the rules.
It's not totally dissimilar, in my eyes.
It's not all that different than in the past some regular person assisting the royalty, and being rewarded for it with some money or small title or allowance, such as being able to utilize a natural resource that's controlled by the crown. It's just a consequence of a massive power disparity, and those are natural (I mean even without market power and m oney, we're talking about a single person and an organization of tens or hundreds of thousands or people, which is its own power difference).
> I also can't help but look at this cynically as a largely self-interested PR grab by Apple that is not a real sacrifice on their part.
It probably is, but that doesn't mean its all it is. It's not always a zero sum game, and if you can help yourself and help someone else at the same time, should we denigrate that just because it's also self serving? Tempering how much good will we attribute for this action is all well and good, but let's not go too far and negate all of it or come away thinking worse of Apple just because they gain something from this as well.