Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
More nonsense. This causes prices to go up and stockholders increase profits.... resulting in an increase in their dividends. TY in advance
 
Well this is the MacRumors comment section after all. Strange stuff gets posted here.
I'll always encourage people to think before commenting or spend some time investigating stories before posting whatever comes to mind. It might be a losing battle, but as an optimist I'll keep encouraging more thoughtful responses.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pianophile
No offense, If Africans could unite as a region and work for the best of their land, they would become unstoppable. Slavery is prohibited in rest of the world but not in Africa it seems.
 
The judicial authorities in France and Belgium will now decide whether to investigate the complaints further and bring criminal charges.

They investigate themselves? Reminds me of how the Country starting with I is always investigating its own (*alleged) war crimes
You don’t know how judicial systems work, right?
Did you not know about prosecutorial discretion ?
Who do you think decides to press charges in a criminal case? The fairy of justice?
 
What China does is pay off the corrupt governments of African countries. They promise to put people to work. They either treat the locals as slave labor or, more often, bring in their workers from China to do it all. The local area gets nothing. China has purposely cornered the market on rare earth metals. Apple has no more to do with this than other Tech companies.
 
And China gets off scot-free with all of the things they are doing in the Congo and elsewhere in Africa for these same metals.
I find it always hard to justify bad things and pointing to others for justification. It’s like dumping waste somewhere because my neighbor does the same.

If their is guilt in this case I hope the ones deliberately are getting punished hard. We have a very good judgement system in Europe I trust.
 
  • Wow
  • Haha
Reactions: I7guy and BugeyeSTI
Indonesia was able to extort money out of Apple, now it's time for other countries to try it.

If they were really concerned about the mineral trade being unfair, they would be going after all tech companies and making a unified policy as a nation.
Why do you people call it extortion? What’s wrong with you?
 
  • Like
Reactions: okieoutwest
I sometimes feel that capitalism, the way it is currently constructed, is not compatible with the future, but instead of doing something about it, we've collectively decided that the future doesn't matter
We, at least in the United States, do not practice capitalism any more. With all of the laws and government interference there are nearly no markets that are free to operate on capitalistic principles. So the problems you seem to refer to are the result of government interference in capitalism.

For example, if electric vehicles were good for the world, people would be buying them in droves, instead the government has to subsidize the purchase in order for people to even consider it. That is NOT capitalism, it is a form of socialism. BTW in case you don't know it, the very first car produced by Henry Ford was an EV.

Now I know you probably believe the propaganda about how EVs will save the world and its children, but that propaganda ignores a lot of downsides to EVs. Including the dark side of mining for the raw materials needed. It also ignores the fact that petroleum is a natural renewable product.

The problem here is not capitalism, but the Nanny's that want to have control of capitalism. Capitalism is free and open markets. Most people are scared of freedom because they then don't know and can't control the future.
 
What China does is pay off the corrupt governments of African countries. They promise to put people to work. They either treat the locals as slave labor or, more often, bring in their workers from China to do it all. The local area gets nothing. China has purposely cornered the market on rare earth metals.
A better way to explain it is by its name …. The Belt and Road Initiative
 
I sometimes feel that capitalism, the way it is currently constructed, is not compatible with the future, but instead of doing something about it, we've collectively decided that the future doesn't matter
What's your alternative?
 
We, at least in the United States, do not practice capitalism any more. With all of the laws and government interference there are nearly no markets that are free to operate on capitalistic principles.
All markets operate under regulations. Absent regulatory bodies, governments, there would be no markets. And no, a barter system isn't pure capitalism.

So the problems you seem to refer to are the result of government interference in capitalism.

Again, absent government, no capitalism.

For example, if electric vehicles were good for the world, people would be buying them in droves,

That makes zero sense, especially from a perspective of capitalism. Capitalism operates on every individual making choices in their own best interest, as determined by themselves. Very few people are buying things because they are good for the world.

instead the government has to subsidize the purchase in order for people to even consider it. That is NOT capitalism, it is a form of socialism.

Governments exist to manage things that are larger than the interests of individuals, that individuals cannot manage for themselves. Governments implement the values of the people; at least that's the idealized version of a democratic society. Is clean water a socialist ploy? Education? Fire trucks? Police?

Now I know you probably believe the propaganda about how EVs will save the world and its children, but that propaganda ignores a lot of downsides to EVs. Including the dark side of mining for the raw materials needed. It also ignores the fact that petroleum is a natural renewable product.

There are very few purely good or purely evil things in the world. Life is complex. Morals are not easy.

The problem here is not capitalism, but the Nanny's that want to have control of capitalism. Capitalism is free and open markets. Most people are scared of freedom because they then don't know and can't control the future.

There's no such thing as a purely "free and open market." Utopian visions aside.
 
For example, if electric vehicles were good for the world, people would be buying them in droves
You fundamentally misunderstand capitalism, if you think that. There is no incentive to do what is "good for the world" in capitalism. There is plenty of incentive to do what's good for yourself (i.e. spend less money on a car).

Whether or not electric vehicles are "good for the world" would have no effect on the individual purchaser in pure, economically rational capitalism. The Prisoner's Dilemma is a basic economic example that shows individuals making bad global choices because they make the most sense individually.

(And such situations are the times where interference can produce better economical outcomes, by forcing everybody to make the same, shared choice, even if that offends people who value individual freedoms. Not that governments are frequently effective at doing that, especially in divided countries.)
 
As the article says, France and Belgium will supposedly police themselves.
It doesn't say that.

It says they were asked to police Apple, because they have the toughest supply chain laws. The only involvement of the countries is that the final iPhones are sold there. There's nothing in the complain implying they had anything to do with the extraction or the laundering.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wanha
What's your alternative?

I wish I knew, but it seems pretty obvious that the current religion of capitalism which requires never-ending growth is going to kill us all before long

I suppose when it all goes to ****, that will be the alternative
 
  • Like
Reactions: 9081094
We, at least in the United States, do not practice capitalism any more. With all of the laws and government interference there are nearly no markets that are free to operate on capitalistic principles. So the problems you seem to refer to are the result of government interference in capitalism.

For example, if electric vehicles were good for the world, people would be buying them in droves, instead the government has to subsidize the purchase in order for people to even consider it. That is NOT capitalism, it is a form of socialism. BTW in case you don't know it, the very first car produced by Henry Ford was an EV.

Now I know you probably believe the propaganda about how EVs will save the world and its children, but that propaganda ignores a lot of downsides to EVs. Including the dark side of mining for the raw materials needed. It also ignores the fact that petroleum is a natural renewable product.

The problem here is not capitalism, but the Nanny's that want to have control of capitalism. Capitalism is free and open markets. Most people are scared of freedom because they then don't know and can't control the future.

Are you really saying capitalism can only exist with zero regulation or otherwise it's "not capitalism"?

And, if we managed to tear down every single shred of regulations, how would that solve the issues of environmental destruction and human conflict in any meaningful way?
 
What China does is pay off the corrupt governments of African countries. They promise to put people to work. They either treat the locals as slave labor or, more often, bring in their workers from China to do it all. The local area gets nothing. China has purposely cornered the market on rare earth metals. Apple has no more to do with this than other Tech companies.

Actually, China does build infrastructure for these countries. Of course, China needs the country to have the necessary infrastructure to support the mineral trade and shipment. It isn't for the humanitarian value of it. But the locals do use it and see benefits from it that they don't see from aid given to countries under the terms of the Washington Consensus.
 
It doesn't say that.

It says they were asked to police Apple, because they have the toughest supply chain laws. The only involvement of the countries is that the final iPhones are sold there. There's nothing in the complain implying they had anything to do with the extraction or the laundering.
The judicial authorities in France and Belgium will now decide whether to investigate the complaints further and bring criminal charges.

They allowed Apple to operate subsidiaries in those countries under that monitoring scheme. If anyone did anything wrong, it was the countries for not applying the proper regulations. Unless Apple was going to Africa and importing these minerals directly, they were imported into those countries.

I still don't see how this is Apple's fault.
 
It goes back WAY more than 30+ years.

The novel & subsequent movie "King Leopold's Ghost" (narrated by Don Cheadle) is one of the most horrific movies I've ever seen.
Leopold II, the most vile man ever to exist; worse than Genghis Khan, Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler combined. I will die on this hill. The sun will rise in the west and set in the east before I change my mind. Leo's only motivation was greed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Naraxus
And China gets off scot-free with all of the things they are doing in the Congo and elsewhere in Africa for these same metals.
You're comparing China to Apple in terms of international influence? Let me put it this way, "When China sneeze, Apple catches a cold."

When you're rich and powerful enough, the laws of man stop applying. China is a country where the rich can hire someone to do jail time in their stead.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 9081094
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.