So charging what people are willing to pay, in order to make money to further R&D, pay for advertising, pay salaries, and to make shareholders money isn't ethical?
Well, that depends on whether there are any alternatives or not. In the case of Macintosh computers, Apple seems to think that they are allowed to be the only player in the OS X hardware market and can "legally" stop others from entering it. You cannot have it both ways. If you are FOR Capitalism, then you MUST compete. If you want to play protectionist, then you are not for Capitalism. Apple continually wants its cake and to eat it too.
The corporate system needs an overhaul because publicly held companies have to please their shareholders?
Not the corporate system. The government is the one that needs the overhaul. Corporations are legal entities. They should not be treated as humans. They should not be allowed to lobby the government as a person would (or have someone do it for them). It is in fact the lobbying that is the problem. Our government is supposed to represent its people, not its corporations. Yet the reality is that it does the latter most of the time because that's where the money is. Lobbying has become a code word for "legal bribe" because that is EXACTLY what it has become. Petitioning your congress to listen to you is one thing. Spending MILLIONS or even BILLIONS to push your company's agenda over the general populace isn't right. This is rule for and by the people, not for and by the corporations. It's a sad day when so many on this forum do not and cannot tell the difference. The basis of capitalism is that competition is good for the consumer and brings about better choices and lower prices. Monopolies are bad for the consumer because it brings about higher prices and few or no choices. When Capitalism becomes about companies joining together into loose federations to protect each other from consumer rights, freedoms and choices it has lost its way.
Everything Apple does anymore is anti-competition. They do not want to compete with Dell directly because it means their profit margins will go down and the consumer will see lower prices. So they maintain that they DO compete with Dell even though Apple is free to ship Macs with Windows but Dell is not free to ship OS X with its hardware. Essentially, if you want OS X, you HAVE to buy your hardware from Apple even though it's the SAME HARDWARE you get from Dell. Apple is tying their OS to their hardware to prevent you from buying your hardware elsewhere if you want to maintain your software library (nobody wants to dump all their software investment to run Windows exclusively; If you're coming from Windows you don't have to do that since the Mac can run Windows, even virtually, but you are not allowed to run OS X virtually)
The sad sad part is that the Apple fanatics think that's perfectly OK. Apple doesn't have to compete with anyone because they're smaller? They're often the #3 hardware seller out there. That's not small. We're talking about hardware sales here, not OS sales. Their OS sales have NOTHING to do with their hardware ranking. Hardware and software are not the same thing and are not the same market.
Not a big fan of capitalism, huh?
I'm not a huge fan of the greed that is often behind capitalism, but capitalism itself is supposed to be beneficial to the consumer by promoting competition to keep choices high and prices low. When that no longer functions because companies are trying to cheat the system then capitalism is no longer an effective economic system.
Pure socialism lacks incentive to do well, but a hybrid system may be what's needed to promote creativity while also maintaining basic living standards for everyone. I find it amazing that so many people out there claim to believe in a religion like Christianity and yet the eschew its basic tenants of charity and treating your neighbor like your own family and avoiding greed and worshiping money. To me, it only proves that most people are in fact hypocrites and have a long way to go on a spiritual level. So no, I don't much like the way capitalism has ruined this country on so many levels. Greed in government (lobbying), greed in corporations, greed at the market place, greed in daily life. It all adds up to misery for all in the end. No I'm not claiming to be any kind of traditional Christian either. I'm simply using it as an example given its #1 status in world religions. Most religions teach similar values. Most people ignore them and still lie, cheat, murder and steal.
What the banks did to the US and what Apple charges for an iPod are two very, very different things, and the former is completely irrelevant to this thread.
You say it's irrelevant but in fact both are based on GREED and so they are much more closely related than you would have people believe. You might find it amazing how well things could run in this world if people weren't trying to constantly cheat or rip off each other any way they can to get ahead.
In any case, like I said, let's see some figures for parts from other companies. Maybe $19 in parts isn't so ridiculous, but how are we going to know if we don't have a frame for comparison?