Obama: Apple's Steve Jobs is Living the American Dream

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: PC Magazine

Americans should celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit and success of someone like Apple chief Steve Jobs, provided he gives back and helps the next generation of wannabe tech titans achieve their own American dreams, President Obama said during a Wednesday news conference.

Obama made his remarks in response to a question about whether there is a divide between the middle class and wealthy Americans. The president said that the top 1 percent of people in this country have a larger share of income and wealth than any time since the 1920s, though he said those individuals often help create a thriving middle class.

"Something that's always been the greatest strength of America is a thriving, booming middle class, where everybody has got a shot at the American Dream. And that should be our goal," Obama said. "That should be what we're focused on. How are we creating opportunity for everybody? So that we celebrate wealth. We celebrate somebody like a Steve Jobs, who has created two or three different revolutionary products. We expect that person to be rich, and that's a good thing. We want that incentive. That's part of the free market."

The president, however, called on those "extraordinarily fortunate" Americans to contribute "to the larger American community so that a whole bunch of other kids coming up are doing well. And that means schools that work and infrastructure like roads and airports that function, and it means colleges and universities that teach and aren't restricted to just people who can afford it but are open to anybody with talent and a willingness to work."

Read more: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374675,00.asp

[Skink]

1. The American dream is getting really hard.

[rko_24550]

31. couldn't agree more.

[Hugin]

2. "those individuals often help create a thriving middle class."

In what land?

:sigh: Once again... Empirical Evidence, please. :eyes:

[snooper2]

8. Apple, Inc. average salary is $107,719.

Real Jobs Salary at Apple, Inc., ranked by Salary, page 1

There are total 165 salary list data for Apple, Inc.. Apple, Inc. average salary is $107,719.
http://www.salarylist.com/all-real-jobs-salary-at-apple-inc.htm



http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Apple_Computer,_Inc/Salary
Apple Company Salary Data
Employee compensation data for Apple shows competitive salaries when compared to industry standards. For example, take a look at Employee Salaries at Microsoft, one of Apple's main competitors. Software engineers at Apple have a median salary of around $92,000 while the median at Microsoft is around $88,000. Apple also has a higher median salary for senior software engineering positions - around $110,000 versus about $107,000 at Microsoft. Although employee salaries are slightly higher at Apple for these job titles, there's no question that both companies tend to offer generous compensation packages for these and similar positions. Median Employee Salaries at Apple range from almost $60,000 to over $100,000 depending on years of experience.

[shawn703]

13. I don't see many positions other than engineers on that list

What's missing from lists like these are often the most telling. There are no receptionists, custodians, security guards, etc., working at Apple? Or are they outsourcing the work to other companies who do the "dirty work" of paying these people in peanuts?

[BenzoDia]

15. Nice money there.

[Hugin]

18. Didn't Apple along with a number of other Silicon Valley Co's get sued for 'caging' engineers?

Highly competitive practice there... Stifling offers to trap an employee at the wage of Apple.

Back to the days of Robber Barons and their "Trusts".

[bluestate10]

36. Salaries at Apple are hefty. nt.

[REP]

60. Buy a house in Santa Clara county on that salary.

Of course, East Palo Alto is in Santa Clara county, so it is possible.

[Marr]

21. In Reaganomics Land. Every time he says things like this, he's endorsing

the Republicans economic view and pulling the rug out from under the left. The "center" is now Reagan. It's ridiculous.

[bluestate10]

37. I virulently disagree with you.

What you claim is NOT what President Obama said. President Obama gave a nod to game changing entrepreneurship. It is men and women that take society changing ideas and bring them to reality that enrich life for all of us. Most of them become very rich in the process, I can live with that outcome. Jobs created Apple, the Mac and the iPhone line, in the process, he created jobs that would not have existed if not for his vision. Some on DU may despise the rich, but many of those rich people have contributed more and are contributing more to the american economy that crying critics who offer no alternatives will deliver in ten lifetimes.

[T Wolf]

3. The American Dream of a nice, reasonable middle-class life has been warped into an obscene lust

for unlimited wealth that destroys the prospects for the old version of that dream by those who already have too much.

Until there is an absolute upper limit on income and wealth, we will continue to be cursed with the cancer of unlimited greed.

[bullwinkle428]

14. BINGO! I hate the way the definition of "American Dream" has been

warped and bastardized over the years. Thom Hartmann has brought this up on numerous occasions on his show!

[Arkana]

23. Obama's right, but I don't think he's realized how warped the American dream has become.

[OHdem10]

4. Yes Jobs is living the American Dream and providing Taiwan

with jobs.

[handmade34]

5. ! n/t

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. No Americans work for Apple?

[bluestate10]

38. Yes. Plenty. nt.

[snooper2]

9. Jobs at Apple

Looking for jobs at corporate?

Displaying 1-15 of 1833
http://jobs.apple.com/index.ajs?BID=1&method=mExternal.searchJobs

[Hannah Bell]

27. jobs in high-tech labor camps.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/12/23/businessinsider-foxconn-photos-2010-12.DTL

[bluestate10]

39. Ignorance is bliss.

I am a techie trained business person. Techies pursue technology changes because they are jazzed about what can be accomplished by the change. None that I know of or have ever worked with work under a whip's lash. The change is not always good, but with out the change of techies over the last century, critics would be riding in horse pulled buggies and still using leeches to "solve" some illnesses.

[meegbear]

6. This is Late Breaking News?

[lunatica]

10. So Obama has to spell it out to the obscenely wealthy?

I really have no issue with people becoming rich. I have an issue with people inheriting wealth without doing something to make the world a better place, but it doesn't offend me that someone like Steve Jobs is rich because I own a Mac and I work on a Mac at work. He's enriched my life in a very profound way that I like.

President Obama is right. Sometimes you just have to spell it out to the greedy. They would actually do so much better if they lifted everyone.

[BenzoDia]

11. Anyone who bought Apple stock a few years ago is living the American Dream.

The value has doubled/tripled for them.

[Statistical]

25. +1. Although I did recently sell half. Seems to be having trouble going north of $325.

[BenzoDia]

29. Deleted

[bluestate10]

41. I hope.

You realize that now half of DU despise you. You obscenely rich, tax avoiding, capitalist, industrialist, yacht loving, worker abusing, $1000/bottle wine drinking, pig. Of course you most likely are none of those things, but to many your just saying that capitalism has many benefits gains you a black star as a member of the Freeper loving evil empire. And that is sad because there is so much right thought on DU that if channeled into concrete action, could change the world for the better.

[BenzoDia]

54. I'm starting to understand what you're saying.

And I own no yacht. Heh, not even close.

[MrTriumph]

12. Obama continues to ignore small business.

The president is clueless.

[OhioChick]

16. Bingo n/t

[johnaries]

19. Ignore? Providing them with grants, loans, tax-cuts, and other

incentives is "ignoring" them? Yeah, right.
:eyes:

[BenzoDia]

24. +1

[MrTriumph]

32. Double the national debt to bailout big business. Small biz got crumbs by comparison.

x

[bluestate10]

43. You see it, I see it. We are definitely minorities. nt.

[FrenchieCat]

20. Marlakey post without facts. Now, I woud call that clueless......

pronouncements without even a hint of documented truth.
Not even clueless...more like pitiful!

[MrTriumph]

33. Hey, read a newspaper, friend.

[whistler162]

42. What is your paypal; account so we can donate to

the buy you a clue fund?

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-28/obama-signs-bill-giving-tax-cuts-loan-help-to-small-businesses.html

[MilesColtrane]

17. Instead of exhorting the richest to give back, how about we just tax the shit out of them?

[Cleita]

26. Yes.

:thumbsup:

[bluestate10]

46. Why don't.

We just start up businesses, however small that will provide jobs, and benefits to workers. Oh, forgot. That is too hard. Better to identify someone else that deserves to suffer. But for what reason? Many rich are losers. But some rich awake everyday with the singular thought of how they can make the world that they live in better. We can tax blindly, or we can do as President Obama is doing and appeal to those rich that are not losers and are patriots to dig a little deeper, and work a little harder at pulling as many people into middle class status and beyond as they can.

[Arkana]

22. He's not wrong.

Most Americans are greedy morons who want nothing more than to be filthy rich. Why do you think they keep electing Republicans? Because Republicans will say "I'll make you rich!" while making them poorer.

[Brickbat]

28. Steve Jobs' life is not my dream and I really hope he is not an example of the American dream.

[BenzoDia]

30. FWIW, Steve Jobs busted his ass hard to get to where he is in life.

Back in the day he drove his teams to the brink with the crazy hours and product deadlines.

Vision *and* hardwork embodies the true American spirit. These values are lost on modern America.

[EFerrari]

34. Um, no. "Modern America" works harder, longer hours

with less vacation time and lower wages.

[BenzoDia]

40. Are you being serious?

Jobs is notorious for working his teams to the point where people would no longer work with him. Tight deadlines, constant pressure, working days and nights. Most people don't have a fraction of this kind of drive and bitch about working a single hour over 40.

[EFerrari]

45. Are you being serious?

American workers put in about 20% more hours now than before Jobs was in long pants.

[BenzoDia]

47. The difference is, Jobs breaks his back b/c of his hunger, not because his boss told him

to come into the office over the weekend. So yeah, I'm being serious.

[EFerrari]

49. Well, if you are being serious, you are also wrong.

You must realize that no matter what your boss says, you go to work because of hunger even if you're not Steve Jobs.

[BenzoDia]

50. I think you may have misunderstood me.

By 'hungry' I mean he's driven by the insatiable desire to produce great products.

He works insane hours for the love of his work. That is not something you see often. I find it inspirational personally.

[Fumesucker]

52. How many people reach the end of their lives and say..

"I wish I'd spent more time at the office?"

Not all jobs can be fulfilling, indeed most jobs are deadly boring, this is becoming increasingly true in burger flipping, do you want fries with that retail America.

Do you think those who live to work are morally superior to those who work to live?

[BenzoDia]

53. Morally superior? No. I think that if someone wants it, they should go

out and get it. If someone doesn't, then that's fine too.

Mr. Jobs wanted it, and worked himself to the bone to get it.

Edit:
We should applaud him.

[Hello_Kitty]

55. The Chinese workers in the sweatshops making Apple products work harder than Jobs ever thought about

[Fumesucker]

58. Well, we know they'll all be as wealthy as Jobs in a few years..

Right?

[Hello_Kitty]

59. Nah. Prolly not. They lack the necessary "vision". eom

[Rex]

35. Yeah and millions of Americans are living the American Nightmare.

He picks out a billionaire as an example, sad. I remember when the American Dream was to just own your own house and two cars with 1.5 kids. Making a MIDDLE CLASS wage and a pension for retirement. We really do live in a nation divided and delusional.

[Lorien]

44. Obama is surrounded by multi millionaires and billionaires. He doesn't see the rest of us

what's more, he doesn't care to see the rest of us. All that matters to any of them is that we keep working hard and stay in our places.

[bluestate10]

48. Many millionaires and billionaires,

became such because they saw opportunity and made the most of it. Opportunity stares all of us in the face daily. Some of us work to take opportunity and produce useful products and services for society. Some of us would not know opportunity if it fell on us. I am not an apologist for the rich, I despise many of them for the people that they are. But there are some rich that passionately care about their fellow citizens and dedicate their waking hours to producing useful products and services, and JOBS for their fellow americans. The last class of rich are the people President Obama is calling to do more, while hoping that some of the loser rich will get into the spirit.

[NashVegas]

51. "So that we celebrate wealth."

So much for the most religious nation on earth.

[Fumesucker]

57. Matthew 6:24

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

Obama makes a big deal of his supposed Christianity, to the point that he thinks marriage is only between a man and a woman.. And yet he ignores a fundamental point of Christian theology to "celebrate wealth".

Gay marriage is bad because it conflicts with the teachings of the Christ, celebrating wealth not so much.

Strange, ain't it? Jesus never once mentioned homosexuality and yet had a lot to say about wealth and the wealthy, quite a bit of it highly negative.

[WinkyDink]

56. "celebrating wealth" is completely antithetical to, e.g., Christian principles, not to mention

secular social fairness.

This one remark puts the lie (if his actions aren't convincing)to Obama's campaign promise about the rich and their taxes.