Skylar
Post# 2
Topic: Technology
Title of Article: Apple’s Job Creation Data Spurs an Economic Debate
Author: Nick Wingfield
Publication Name: New York Times
Date of Publication: Sunday, March 4 21012
Length: 966
On Friday, March 2nd, the Apple company shared their first score of data regarding how many people are employed due to their products. Apple claims that from a study they as a company funded, they have concluded that Apple products have “created or supported” 514,000 American jobs. These jobs range from the engineers who conceptualize iPads and iPhones to the men and women who build the trucks that deliver the Apple products. It is clear that this statement displayed on Apple’s homepage was meant to show how the Apple company has improved the job market of this country far more then other studies not funded by Apple claim. Other studies claim that Apple products supply 47,000 people with jobs in this country. Apple claims that these 47,000 people are only those that the company employs directly when in actuality its products provides jobs for more then ten times that many people.
Several onlookers however debate Apple’s newly published numbers. Gary P. Pisano, a professor of business administration at Harvard University suggests that perhaps attempting to put a number on the total number of jobs created by the domino affect of the Apple company is far too ambitious. He said, “Apple has a big effect, and big is about as precise as I can make it… It’s hard to say the exact size.” Other masters of education such as David Autor a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that it was disgraceful of Apple’s to post such a study publicly when he said, “[the] entire business of claiming ‘direct and indirect’ job creation is disreputable”. He advised that it was not smart of Apple to take credit for those jobs that could have easily been produced elsewhere without Apple. In general, it seems that many great thinkers find Apple’s gutsy move of naming themselves heros in the job making world a display of idiocy and overconfidence in computing the impossible.
Personally, I find Apple's decision to post its findings genius. Apple has always been seen as the "cooler", "hipper", sleeker and more modern choice when it comes to technology and therefore in general (excluding cost) more popular then Windows etc. To the common person who purchases an iPhone or iPod or iPad or MacBook seeing a posting about how many people Apple helps will only boost that person's opinion of Apple as a company and it will make that person happy that they purchased a product that helped supply jobs. The common person, assuming they haven't read this article has no idea what that number means or how accurate it is. I think that in general what Apple did was smart for business but very undignified.
Interesting article! It's really great how you included the views of those who supported Apple's declaration, the views of those who thought Apple announcement very arrogant and inaccurate, as well as your own opinion. It will be interesting to see if other companies will follow in the steps of Apple and start releasing statistics of how they helped boost the economy as well. However, it would be more virtuous if they released results from proven and reliable study methods.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your opinion that Apple played an incredibly clever public opinion card, but did so in an underhanded way that only experts would notice. I wonder if this may have been the result of the new leadership, since Tim Cook is rumored to be incredibly prudent and cunning in his business practices. Steve Jobs on the other hand, was much more of an idealist and dreamer, who probably would not have turned to this type of method to bolster Apple's reputation.
Seeing this article I realize that the debate about Apple's role in society is just beginning. I find that regardless of the actual number of jobs created by Apple, the company still plays a key role in our economy. However, I would like to shed light on the fact that Apple currently does not support standard working conditions of its factories in China. It is argued that with its amount of money and power, Apple should be able to influence the factory practices at the Foxconn factories in Shenzen, China. Despite these facts, so far Apple has not chosen to respond to these matter. As a result, many factory workers have resorted to suicide to capture western attention. One may not be quite so proud of buying Apple products after realizing this.
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