Steve Jobs Day

California Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed today, Sunday October 16th, 2011,  "Steve Jobs Day" all across California.

Brown proclaimed:  "In his life and work, Steve Jobs embodied the California dream. To call him influential would be an understatement. His innovations transformed an industry, and the products he conceived and shepherded to market have changed the way the entire world communicates. Most importantly, his vision helped put powerful technologies, once the exclusive domain of big business and government, in the hands of ordinary consumers. We have only just begun to see the outpouring of creativity and invention that this democratization of technology has made possible.


It is fitting that we mark this day to honor his life and achievements as a uniquely Californian visionary. He epitomized the spirit of a state that an eager world watches to see what will come next."

Steve Jobs' vision and energy changed the way the world looked at and used computers and electronic devices. I find it highly amusing that even PC magazine, who, along with the rest of the PC world, did everything they could to ignore the computer system that refused to use MS-DOS, is mourning Mr. Jobs passing. Jobs made the PC world covet Apple products, that, in a nut shell, is how much Steve Jobs changed the computing world. But in doing so, did Steve Jobs and Apple Computer become another behemoth that looks to squash it's competition, ala Microsoft, while delivering  70% profit margins to it's share holders on the backs of Asian pollution and slave labor?

I am an early Mac adapter. I had a Mac SE, a boxy mini tower with a Motorola 6800, 8 MHz chip
with 4MB of RAM (I Installed) and a black and white 9" monitor, with daisy wheel printer I paid
$ 3,200.00 for in 1989. I loved this computer! I was so excited to be moving forward in the future of computers! All of my peers were using PC computers and were dumbfounded that I would buy a stupid computer that didn't use MS-DOS!  I, presently,  have an I-Mac in my office and am writing this blog on my MacBook Pro. Yes, I have an older I-pod and I covet an I-Pad, but as of this date have not found a good enough reason to purchase one. I have never bought an I-Phone, mostly because I despise AT&T's service. That has changed now, but I still haven't purchased one. I want to be clear that I am one of the big Apple product supporters out there, I love their products. But, because of America's continuing recession, that really is a depression, I  have recently begun to question American Corporations business practices related to American jobs and the sustainability of a quality American life. I am seeing more and more American corporations outsourcing American jobs in search of cheaper products, higher profit margins, less taxes, and the ability to outsource slave labor , suicides and pollution to the third world. Is this morally and ethically right? 

Additional issues I have had with Apple in the past have been their exploiting their consumers by embedding non replaceable batteries in their early I-pods & I-Phones in an attempt to guarantee repeat sales. I have had ethical and moral issues with Apple, especially their legal policy of suing other companies before first gathering all of the facts necessary to pursue a legitimate lawsuit.   Why can't Apple choose to  build their I-Phones and I-Macs here in the United States with American workers? I understand that American corporations have used NAFTA, and every other advantage to make larger profits to build their business. This, in and of itself, on the surface, isn't a bad thing. But their lack of bringing back jobs to America when they become super successful rubs me the wrong way. Too many of Americas largest corporations are forsaking the American People in search of a higher stock price and bonuses for the corporate suite. In Apple's case they are doing this on the backs of Chinese slave labor, pollution and built in obsolescence, persuading the American consumer to buy the next latest and greatest in the cult of Apple. I think we could really have been proud and impressed with Mr. Jobs and Apple if they had used his pop star computer cult status and brought real jobs and prosperity back to America as well as designing and packaging the next must have electronic device.