Sorry, Apple, and Apple fans, but that's how it goes.

[Pholus]

19. Hey, who ever said taking the high road is easy.

My support for Apple left when they left. The only reason I didn't buy one of their US made computers was because I was a student and couldn't afford it though it was on the "to-do" list. After they left and the prices didn't change that much I though well screw that I'll buy the lower margin items. Then I discovered the number of cast-offs that consumerism was creating and their very reasonable secondhand price (as in, please take it away and it's yours or I'll just throw it away) and found that my computing needs have been free for years...

You've got the right idea so I don't think we're in disagreement here. We want the conditions to be better. But it's only $7 a phone if Apple wanted to dictate to foxconn that their employees should be worked 50% less -- which would be a 40 hour week. 80 hours a week, facilitated by on-campus dorms. Personally, I couldn't sleep at night if my paycheck was in any way connected to that. It's just immoral.

By the way, while I've definitely poked at some of the more clueless on their brand worship but I have no personal issues with a person making a choice about what works best for their computing needs. If Apple works for you, do it. But, understand why Apple is the target here. Nike was not the source of all sweatshop problems and if you believe the FLA has any credibility at all on the issue it was because people pressured the industry leader Nike, not the industry as a whole because they were all guilty. One of the risks of being successful is that you become the poster child.

As far as data on the margins, I have been using this month-old nytimes piece to work it through

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

I think the biggest disappointment for me is the realization that it isn't the difference between "can't make it here" and "can," but instead the difference between (using the word "hundreds" plural to describe the profit margin as does the article) obscenely and merely wildly profitable.