Apple CEO Tim Cook Calls For Unity in Memo to Staff Following Trump Victory

[kobalap]

You know that most of our tax dollars don't ever go to anyone who needs public assistance, right? Wanna get mad? Look at our military budget.
[doublepost=1478799779][/doublepost]

15% corporate tax? You'd better believe it.

Makes me happy. I am a stock holder.

 

[Rogifan]

Not that it matters but California vote total was down 31% from 2012. Democrat vote totals in the states that Trump flipped were down:

• 18% in Ohio (Republicans up 4%)
• 5% in Pennsylvania (Republicans up 9%)
• 20% in Iowa (Republicans up 9%)
• 15% in Wisconsin (Republicans no change)
• 12% in Michigan (Republicans up 8%)

And Florida which Trump also flipped was up 6% for Democrats but 11% for Republicans. Rather than protesting in uber liberal cities and writing silly letters perhaps the democrats should be focusing on why turnout was so horrible for them in those states. Perhaps Nancy Pelosi isn't the right person to lead the Democrats in the House. Democrats aren't going to win back those 5 states from San Francisco. Nor are they going to win them back by calling those voters a basket of deplorables.

 

[Thunderhawks]

bring all the jobs back )

Especially Steve !

 

[fmalloy]

Don't you think it would be best if your company's head honcho said *nothing* about the President-elect or politics in general?

It's your workplace and your job. It's nothing to do with politics. Don't email your employees if the Giants lose, or comment about Beyonce's last concert, and certainly don't discuss religion or politics. Stick to business.

It's easy, really.

 

[bunnicula]

I'm with you on the personal insults stuff. There was no need for it and it only makes him look bad. That said, there's a big difference between an off-hand personal insult -- and let's remember he's never been a politician -- and actual policy he espouses.

What's racist about a wall? It's just steel, brick, and concrete. You can't find a single history book claiming the Romans were racists for building Hadrian's Wall (though it's probably coming some day). His ban on Muslims was very quickly clarified to be exclusive to countries from where there's currently no possible way to vet a refugee. That's defending the US citizen and I'm fine with that.

I agree that there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to build a wall. A wall is a wall. It's border security. But, walls cost money and claiming that Mexicans are all rapists and murderers and they're taking jobs away from Americans (I have rarely seen anyone in America that wants to do the jobs that most Mexican seem to be doing when they cross the border in desperation to search for money to support their families) is terrible.

THAT is what is wrong with Trump. And he KNOWS IT. He said all that crap to inflame the racist bigots who comprised a huge hunk of his base.

I realize that not all of his supporters are racist bigots, but surely you see that, in voting for him, a person who is NOT a racist bigot is voting for the official candidate of the Racist Bigot, right?
[doublepost=1478801379][/doublepost]

Don't you think it would be best if your company's head honcho said *nothing* about the President-elect or politics in general?

It's your workplace and your job. It's nothing to do with politics. Don't email your employees if the Giants lose, or comment about Beyonce's last concert, and certainly don't discuss religion or politics. Stick to business.

It's easy, really.

Apple has been involved in politics before now. Why is this any different. The stock market took a nosedive the night Trump was elected. You think Apple shareholders didn't want to hear from Apple after that?

Apple has been a strong supporter of gay rights. Do you think that Apple shareholders, employees, and customers did not want to hear what their CEO had to say?

I wanted to hear it. I'm glad he spoke up.

 

[hudson1]

Except Trump didn't get elected because they like Trump. They worship celebrity, racism, sexism, guns and religion. Also he didn't win the popular vote because he's not popular. I don't think he's going to do most of the nonsense he campaigned on, and he won't be as bad as people think, but he's not going to do anything for the people who voted for him. They will remain uneducated white rural citizens and probably worse off 5 years from now.

A patently false but convenient narrative. My precinct is white, upper middle-class, and highly educated. It overwhelmingly voted for Trump two days ago. I've seen the actual vote totals, too.

 

[jimbobb24]

Because she was the better candidate. Tim is gay like a lot of people, and Trump's VP is a guy who believes that gay can be prayed away - which leads to many many suicides.
So yeah I can see why non-straight folk are worried. Tim seeks to calm them and I agree with that. But it won't make me buy a new MBP... maybe a new iPhone if the next one is decent enough.

Because those people are emotionally unstable and have an irrational view of American politics that is based on fear and hatred for their fellow citizens.

Nope.
Actually, many can CLEARLY see that it is a matter of population density & infrastructure.
Let me quantify it for you:
Foxconn plants are large. Like, unfathomable in America large. Like- "where are we going to put that??" large.
Because we are not a 3rd world country, usually we keep enormous/ugly buildings in rural locations (see: all of Apple's/FB's data centers, etc.), NOT at the epicenter of our highest urban populated areas.
Ignoring that, for a brief moment & imagining that we found a place for one in the heart of Los Angeles... the population there is 3.8 million. There are 400,000 workers at a Foxconn plant. One in eight of all Los Angeles residents would have to work there.
Hmmmmm.... running into some problems here. One in eight of all LA residents are not all like suited in temperament, etc. to high volume, low skill production labor jobs. One in eight of all LA residents are likely not even seeking work. As a matter of fact @ 5.3% unemployment, that makes 201,000 individuals. Soooo... they'd be about 40% staffed with mostly unqualified workers if they just hired EVERY unemployed person in LA.
Mind you..., this was the BEST CASE highly unrealistic scenario.
In reality- such a facility would only be approved, out in the sticks somewhere. When done- how to staff it??
In a rural area, it would need literally 100% of the working population of the closest 20 towns!
I hope this is not coming across as "America sucks!"; quite to the contrary- we escaped these horrific industries some 70 years ago, in the industrial revolution.
Nobody (but apparently you?) wants to go back to that.
Lol, is THIS the "make America great again" you guys have been on about??!
China has solved all the "impossibilities" I mentioned....
They have created an infrastructure allowing for huge amounts of men & women to be bussed from far off villages to live onsite. The schedule may be something like six weeks on, two weeks off. So, for two solid weeks out of every two months- mommy, or daddy return home with a HUGE (compared to the local farmers) paycheck to spend time with their family & be revered as bread winners.
That's it. That's how it works.
Sound like something we should try to recreate here??
No. We have evolved beyond that as a nation. We now run service industries & whatnot.
I cannot imagine a lot of people want to get behind turning us into a 3rd world country.

I think you vastly underestimate how dynamic a relatively free country is in the US. We could build out everything you describe in 5-10 years and probably faster, similar to the timeframe it was done in another country. Do we want to do it? The better question is - is there a company in the world who thinks it is worth the cost/benefit of current US laws and regulations to attempt. "We" could do it no problem.

 

[bunnicula]

A patently false but convenient narrative. My precinct is white, upper middle-class, and highly educated. It overwhelmingly voted for Trump two days ago. I've seen the actual vote totals, too.

Trump's base has two pools. Poor, rural, uneducated people who are outwardly racist, love guns and Jesus, and attend rallies at night in pointy hoods. The other is rich, white, and often at least college educated people who are voting solely with their wallets and don't really give a damn about anyone else.

And are, quite possibly, closet xenophobes. And they might be so far in the closet that they don't even know it.

The former get all the attention in the press, but the latter put Trump in the White House.

 

[jimbobb24]

I find it interesting that most, if not all, riots last night were in blue states. The city of Indianapolis was bright blue in the middle of a red state but there were no riots in Indianapolis last night. It seems so ironic to me that "tolerant" people are physically assaulting Trump supporters, burning police cars and American flags because they are opposed to "hate" and violence.

Riots that took place in "Red" states when first African American elected? Zero. Riots when run of the mill left of center celebrity gets elected? Its obvious by now a large swath of Americans view other Americans with irrational hatred, and their empathy and appreciation of their fellow Americans. The haters keep self identifying by taking to the streets and making exaggerated claims.

 

[Tycho24]

All 15 of them

Yup.
That's how it works.
If it's low volume enough to be feasible to build it here- they are. (Awesome!)
It being an expensive "boutique" item makes that possible.
Now, since ZERO cell phones are manufactured top to bottom & very few components for them are manufactured here, it would be an insanely difficult process & put them at a distinct disadvantage to attempt to change that.
It is simply not feasible.

 

[kobalap]

Spot on. Apple should focus on making the best products and defending its stance on security. Other than that, I'd prefer my tech companies to be apolitical.

Not that it matters but California vote total was down 31% from 2012. Democrat vote totals in the states that Trump flipped were down:

• 18% in Ohio (Republicans up 4%)
• 5% in Pennsylvania (Republicans up 9%)
• 20% in Iowa (Republicans up 9%)
• 15% in Wisconsin (Republicans no change)
• 12% in Michigan (Republicans up 8%)

And Florida which Trump also flipped was up 6% for Democrats but 11% for Republicans. Rather than protesting in uber liberal cities and writing silly letters perhaps the democrats should be focusing on why turnout was so horrible for them in those states. Perhaps Nancy Pelosi isn't the right person to lead the Democrats in the House. Democrats aren't going to win back those 5 states from San Francisco. Nor are they going to win them back by calling those voters a basket of deplorables.

Democrats need to shut their trap and let the Republicans govern for the next 4 years. We have Republicans in charge of government in the executive, legislative and soon enough, judiciary. We could conceivably have 7 republicans and 2 democrats in the supreme court in the next couple of years.

If lucky, we will:
- dismantle obamacare
- introduce legislation that makes gay marriage illegal
- eliminate medicare and social security
- eliminate all social programs
- privatize all education
- make collective bargaining illegal
- open up all federal lands for fossil fuel exploration
- get rid of the EPA, HUD, Dept of Education
- flatten out the tax code (get rid of AMT, estate taxes, luxury taxes)

And when all the democrats starts feeling the effects of the election for which they sat and chose not to come out to vote, do not expect any sympathy from anyone.

 

[jimbobb24]

Trump's base has two pools. Poor, rural, uneducated people who are outwardly racist, love guns and Jesus, and attend rallies at night in pointy hoods. The other is rich, white, and often at least college educated people who are voting solely with their wallets and don't really give a damn about anyone else.

And are, quite possibly, closet xenophobes. And they might be so far in the closet that they don't even know it.

The former get all the attention in the press, but the latter put Trump in the White House.

Its hard to even discuss someone who views their fellow Americans in such loathsome terms. Americans disagree about some things, but we are far more alike than not. Most of us are also bored of claims of racism. That word has been played out. Spend some time asking with your fellow citizens what they are worried about, why they vote the way they do, sit down and talk. You will probably disagree, but your irrational hatred may go down.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

I agree with the sentiment, but wishing for something doesn't make it any more realistic to do so. There's no way that Apple can manufacture products like the iPhone in the US. Our country long ago gave up its leadership in manufacturing and we simply don't have the capacity to produce most Apple products at the speeds, volumes, and quality levels Apple gets from companies in China. Even if Apple could magically teleport a Foxcon manufacturing facility to the US, I doubt many Americans would be willing to do that sort of work for that sort of pay. Conversely, if those hypothetical workers were paid decent wages, an iPhone would cost $2000.

More to the point, TSMC, FOXCON and others are retrofitting assembly jobs by humans in China to Robots. So, both China and the US are out of the long-term loop.
[doublepost=1478802318][/doublepost]

Garbage like what TC just said is part of the reason why Trump got elected. The pubic are sick of the rich elite running the show without putting the neds of everyone first.

TC needs to either play politics or be CEO of Apple. Not both. TC trying to do both as well as support Clinton was not going to help Apple at all.

So an historically depressed electorate voted for an elite to run the show? Your lack of basic logic is the reason much of this country is angry: too blind to look in the mirror.

 

[MH01]

Well, based on what? Your hypothesis of "America sucks"? Because iPhones have never been manufactured here for you to have any data ponts for your position. But it seems just a bit silly to suggest Americans, who build world renowned products like Boeing jets, Ford trucks, Harley motorcycles, among others, don't have the ability to make iPhones.

Of course they can, they just get paid too much compared to China.

 

[PBRsg]

This is an example of the kind of empty neoliberal rhetoric that led to Trump getting elected.

A company that touts diversity, yet from an economic standpoint, shuts so many people out.

Dr. King was about racial AND economic justice, a Civil Rights Movement AND a Poor People's Campaign, but Tim Cook and his mealy-mouthed subordinates wouldn't understand that.

That is because the politically correct noises coming out of large corporations are not genuine, but PR. The same thing applies to a lot of politicians: for all his politically correct talk, what did Obama really do to crack down on the tax avoidance of multinational corporations? I am sorry to say that the people that fall for these noises are naive idiots; self interest will always rule the world of business. I wish they would cut out the BS and stop pretending they are something they are not.

 

[kobalap]

Its hard to even discuss someone who views their fellow Americans in such loathsome terms. Americans disagree about some things, but we are far more alike than not. Most of us are also bored of claims of racism. That word has been played out. Spend some time asking with your fellow citizens what they are worried about, why they vote the way they do, sit down and talk. You will probably disagree, but your irrational hatred may go down.

Actually, what the previous poster said is supported by exit polling data.

Which is neither here nor there. Trump was elected and the sooner people come to grips with reality, the sooner they will stop being miserable.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Hate is in full bloom, in the world and here on MR.

 

[gugy]

I agree with the sentiment, but wishing for something doesn't make it any more realistic to do so. There's no way that Apple can manufacture products like the iPhone in the US. Our country long ago gave up its leadership in manufacturing and we simply don't have the capacity to produce most Apple products at the speeds, volumes, and quality levels Apple gets from companies in China. Even if Apple could magically teleport a Foxcon manufacturing facility to the US, I doubt many Americans would be willing to do that sort of work for that sort of pay. Conversely, if those hypothetical workers were paid decent wages, an iPhone would cost $2000.

Yep, most Americans (especially the ones voted for Trump) still living in the illusion these manufacturing jobs will come back to USA. Globalization, competition and technology changed the world and Americans gotta adapt to this new order. Trump won't save them from this reality.

 

[Sonmi451]

A patently false but convenient narrative. My precinct is white, upper middle-class, and highly educated. It overwhelmingly voted for Trump two days ago. I've seen the actual vote totals, too.

I'm generalizing - read the exit polls. Upper middle class will mostly be sheltered from any politics anyway but that doesn't mean you didn't support a terrible president. Of course that will remain to be seen.

 

[kobalap]

So an historically depressed electorate voted for an elite to run the show? Your lack of basic logic is the reason much of this country is angry: too blind to look in the mirror.

Assuming logic in the process is where you are having problems. Many people voted against their own self interest. Blue states such as NY and CA voted for someone who would have increased their burden to contribute to the Republic. People in Michigan voted for someone who is going to reduce the benefits they receive from the Republic.

Like I keep saying, everyone is going to get a giant dose of what they deserve.

 

[sudo1996]

All the tech stocks are dropping, but the overall market is up. Suggests people are selling AAPL and such to buy things they expect Trump to boost. I sold all my S&P500 ETF after the rally following Trump's victory; maybe it's time for me to buy... not AAPL because Tim Cook sucks, but a mix of the others.

 

[kobalap]

All the tech stocks are dropping, but the market is up. Suggests people are selling AAPL and such to buy things they expect Trump to boost. I sold all my S&P500 ETF after the rally following Trump's victory; maybe it's time for me to buy... not AAPL because Tim Cook sucks, but GOOG or something.

Made a bundle on Apple myself.
[doublepost=1478803807][/doublepost]

I'm generalizing - read the exit polls. Upper middle class will mostly be sheltered from any politics anyway but that doesn't mean you didn't support a terrible president. Of course that will remain to be seen.

He's got a singular sample. If you look across most red states, metropolitan areas voted blue.

 

[Rogifan]

Of course they can, they just get paid too much compared to China.

In 2013 Foxconn had 300,000 people just working on assembly lines churning out the iPhone 5S. Name me an equivalent city in the USA where that would be possible.

 

[sudo1996]

I was really afraid of the Trump presidency until I saw how the markets reacted, and now I'm less afraid. The pros think he's going to grow our economy. He's a horrible person, and I voted against him. Half the things he said were crazy, and I hope he never implements them. I'm not happy about him trying to kill the EPA or keep Muslims from immigrating. But some of it seems great. I'm particularly excited to see a reshuffling of U.S. alliances. NATO has historically been worse than worthless to us. And maybe he really can bring jobs back here if he balances the trade deals that currently favor the foreign nations.

Well, this doesn't matter as much because we still don't have any idea what he's actually going to do, and he's totally inexperienced.

 

[kobalap]

In 2013 Foxconn had 300,000 people just working on assembly lines churning out the iPhone 5S. Name me an equivalent city in the USA where that would be possible.

We wouldn't do that in the US. We would deploy robotics instead. Cheaper and more reliable than labor.

For the affluent, its gonna be a great 4 or 8 years. For middle income/blue collar types, sucks to be you. Should have gotten a better education.