Apple: What's Right And Wrong With Capitalism

Apple Inc. just made the biggest profit for a corporation in history:

Apple Inc quarterly results smashed Wall Street expectations with record sales of big-screen iPhones in the holiday shopping season and a 70 percent rise in China sales, powering the company to the largest profit in corporate history.

The company sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 27, while many analysts had expected fewer than 70 million. Revenue rose to $74.6 billion from $57.6 billion a year earlier.

Profit of $18 billion was the biggest ever reported by a public company, worldwide, according to S&P analyst Howard Silverblatt. Apple's cash pile is now $178 billion, enough to buy IBM or the equivalent to $556 for every American.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/iphone-sales-trample-expectations-profit-sets-global-record-104736153--finance.html

Kudos, you may say. And iPhones definitely benefit humanity. I guess.

But this "value added"-based profit will not benefit humanity. To put that "$556 for every American" in perspective, there are now 16 million US kids who rely on food stamps (5% of the total population), and each receives about $133 per month, which works out to $6.65 for every American:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/one_in_five_children_is_on_food_stamps_more_than_before_the_recession.html

and

http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/avg-monthly-food-stamp-benefits/

And since, according to some sources, Apple does not pay their fair share of taxes, even that measly $6.65 probably doesn't come from them:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/20/how-to-make-30-billion-and-pay-no-corporate-income-tax-the-apple-way/

So, I guess they're mostly going to keep that $18 billion profit for themselves.

And I doubt Steve Jobs is rolling over in his grave. Capitalism is about the accumulation of capital, not the sharing of wealth or the doing of good works.