Apple pretty much is the government when it comes to the App Store. A single entity, monopoly powers, no competition, makes all the rules and is allowed to enforce them without penalty. “Tax” is a pretty apt term for the 30%.
It definitely is not. The defining feature of a government is the legitimate use of violence. No actual or threatened violence, no government.
There are lots of reasons to be concerned about the App Store and Apple, but let's not blur the lines between money voluntarily given to use a service, and money given to avoid arrest and jail.
Violence being monopolised by State is the modern political philosophy given by Weber in 1919. Tax existed when individuals namely aristocracy even had legitimate use of violence.
Apple makes case it charges fees for public good by curating list and providing security to end users, that's public welfare unless it's millions of users aren't enough to be categorised as Public.
This App Store ecosystem sits at over 1.5 billion inhabitants, larger than China.
Frankly, state tax is the perfect word to use.
You can't not opt out of your government ecosystem (Or at least, it's more complicated).
This is like calling Walmart profit margin "tax" ... just buy in another store.
The issue isn’t the end users, it’s the app owners. A single entity controls access to the large majority of paying customers (after all, Apple makes most of the profit compared to Google/Android),
Of course you can. If you can move from Apple to Android you can move from one country to another. It would hard to find a more perfect analogy to this situation.
Why not call it a fine? Or a bonus?
So, it is a tax.
We call it a tax because there is no way to avoid it except not selling our apps. And because 30% is quite high. It would not be seen in a such a negative way if it was in the 10-15% range.
I’m genuinely confused by this sentiment. If you lose money after paying the 30% then you wouldn’t be in the App Store at all. But you “have to pay it” because even after the cut you’re still turning a profit. An apparently large enough profit for it to be worth the separate development and maintenance costs too. What makes you feel like you have no choice but to develop for iOS?
Don’t get me wrong it’s absolutely shitty when someone with leverage over your business squeezes but the percentage can’t be the deciding factor here. The same as every business ever, Apple charges you whatever they think they can get away with. So either it should be okay for Apple to take a percentage cut or not.
This is bad for the ecosystem in general, and in my opinion Apple does not need that money. And they are evading the tax laws in most countries, simply because they can...
That's exactly the point. Everyone understands what a tax means, so calling something that is not a tax "a tax" is intentionally misleading. People call it a tax to invoke emotions and mislead, not to clarify what is going on. Everyone also understands what a fee means.
> What I don't understand is this weird impulse to always defend the two trillion dollar corporation against any slight insult.
What I don't understand is why people think it's relevant that Apple is a two trillion dollar company. Apple is not a monopolist and operates in generally very competitive markets, yet many people still buy Apple products despite their high profit-margins. Clearly they are doing something very right in the eyes of many consumers to be a two trillion dollar company. How is that a bad thing?
Apple has created something that improved the world (that created new wealth) and is charging for it. That’s definitionally not rent-seeking.
It’s a great way to get people upset that they have to pay for something because taxes have such a negative connotation in American politics. Taxation is regarded as financial oppression in some political circles, and it’s easy to co-oof that message for other purposes.
This whole euphemism and emotion thing is just getting in the way of reality and proper discussion.