Date: 2024-08-16 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021529
COMPANIES
APPLE
HUGE VALUE FOR INVESTORS ... NOT SO MUCH FOR WORKERS
APPLE
HUGE VALUE FOR INVESTORS ... NOT SO MUCH FOR WORKERS
Burgess COMMENTARY
I don't know how accurate the underlying data for this graphic are, but I am sure that the core idea that very little of the price of Apple products flows to labor at any point in the company's supply chain, production and marketing chain. Meanwhile there are huge wealth flows to the owners of the companies that produce and market the components and the Apple products themselves.
The reality that there is the technology and expertise in the modern world for products to be designed and produced that are seem to have such a huge value to the user should be applauded. What is problematic is that users of these products are paying a high price to get the benefit of the product's value. Most of the users have rather low 'discretionary spending power' and it becomes unclear as to whether or not Apple products deliver valueadd for users.
Worse ... much of the use of Apple products is increasingly for activities that have dubious benefit for the user. Many of the 'apps' that are available for Apple products are entertainment and often designed to have an addictive quality. People spend an enormous amount of time engaged in entertainment use of their Apple product taking time from more productive activities. The Apple ecosystem enables all sorts of unproductive activity, including apps such as those that enable gambling on most enything, anywhere and all the time.
Essentially all the metrics that are used to conclude that Apple is a great company with great products are flawed. It is another good example of the danger of if excessive financialization in the socio-enviro-economic system.
Peter Burgess