Hmmm, I didn't know that the Red Cross would actually allow anyone to specify the recipient of a donation. If this event goes like many others, the Red Cross will get a surge of donations, they will not spend that surge at the specific site or event that caused the surge, they will spread the donations around and among their ongoing relief efforts (as they see fit). The Red Cross is a great organization and I'm sure the money will be well spent, but I don't know how it will be directed toward Sandy relief.
Anyway, though this is such a minuscule percentage of Apple's cash on hand (the decimals are hard to count, but I think this is 1/1000th of 2% of Apple's cash, or thereabouts (and far less on a percentage basis than I gave tonight of my cash reserves to a Sandy relief charity at a party hosted by Susan Sarandon and Padma Lakshmi (yeah, I'm name dropping))) that I'm not sure we should really get too worked up about it. But it is a nice gesture and it is a significant amount of money. You could probably rebuild 10 of the thousands of homes which were destroyed with that kind of cash.
Don't get me wrong. Apple is a for profit company. It has no moral obligation to make donations to natural disaster relief. Silly for folks to suggest otherwise. That is what we have charities, communities and the government for.
Anyway, though this is such a minuscule percentage of Apple's cash on hand (the decimals are hard to count, but I think this is 1/1000th of 2% of Apple's cash, or thereabouts (and far less on a percentage basis than I gave tonight of my cash reserves to a Sandy relief charity at a party hosted by Susan Sarandon and Padma Lakshmi (yeah, I'm name dropping))) that I'm not sure we should really get too worked up about it. But it is a nice gesture and it is a significant amount of money. You could probably rebuild 10 of the thousands of homes which were destroyed with that kind of cash.
Don't get me wrong. Apple is a for profit company. It has no moral obligation to make donations to natural disaster relief. Silly for folks to suggest otherwise. That is what we have charities, communities and the government for.