Slashdot Mirror
Apple CEO Tim Cook Shares His Experience Of Working With President Donald Trump (bloomberg.com)
In a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about his experience of working with Donald Trump. He said: I feel a great responsibility as an American, as a CEO, to try to influence things in areas where we have a level of expertise. I've pushed hard on immigration. We clearly have a very different view on things in that area. I've pushed on climate. We have a different view there. There are clearly areas where we're not nearly on the same page. We're dramatically different. I hope there's some areas where we're not. His focus on jobs is good. So we'll see. Pulling out of the Paris climate accord was very disappointing. I felt a responsibility to do every single thing I could for it not to happen. I think it's the wrong decision. If I see another opening on the Paris thing, I'm going to bring it up again. At the end of the day, I'm not a person who's going to walk away and say, "If you don't do what I want, I leave." I'm not on a council, so I don't have those kind of decisions. But I care deeply about America. I want America to do well. America's more important than bloody politics from my point of view. Let me give you an example of this. Veterans Affairs has struggled in providing health care to veterans. We have an expertise in some of the things at the base level that they're struggling with. So we're going to work with them. I could give a crap about the politics of it. I want to help veterans. My dad's a veteran. My brother served. We have so many military folks in Apple. These folks deserve great health care. So we're going to keep helping.
They do. What law - the written manifest of what is democratically decided by the people - is either entity breaking? Too many forget what Judge Learned Hand wrote in the 1934 case of Helvoring v. Gregory:
Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes.
I assume you take every tax deduction and break that you are legally entitled to, why shouldn't anyone else?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Although the article here seems tailor made to bring out both the political flames as well as the Apple-bashing flames, I would like to say that I admire this attitude.
Talk is cheap. I judge a man by his actions. Tim Cook talks a good game about caring about the country but he does everything in his power to have his company avoid paying taxes to support it. Apple has billions in cash on their balance sheet which could be invested in ways that would create jobs. Instead they simply sit like Smaug on their pile of gold and do nothing that would create jobs or drive the economy forward. Apple has outsourced nearly all of their manufacturing to China, even stuff that might not actually have to be outsourced. Tim Cook I'm sure has many wonderful qualities but on the stuff he's talking about here he is nothing but a do-nothing hypocrite. Few companies are as well resourced to help change the world as Apple but sadly Apple and Cook are doing little with that opportunity.
I wish there were more people with the attitude that they want to do what they can to fix what problems they can, and that far too many people do instead say, "If you don't do what I want, I leave."
So do I. What's more I think rich powerful men like Tim Cook should be leading the charge instead of hoping others do it for them. Elon Musk is a FAR better example of someone trying to actually improve the world than Tim Cook is.
Forget about "deserve" or "earn". All empirical evidence shows that it is less expensive per capita to provide universal single payer healthcare. We are collectively wasting more money trying to sort out who deserves what healthcare than it would cost just to provide healthcare for everyone. So besides a sense of moral superiority, what do you have to gain by supporting the current system?
Nope. Apple has stashed much of their cash in an Irish company which is not taxed anywhere, in a manner that they didn't have to pay any tax before they stashed it there. The latter point is what the EU objected to, claiming that Ireland allowed them excessive deductions for the "royalties" they paid to the stateless company, to the tune of US$13 billion of tax not paid.
They would have to pay US tax if they dividended these funds up to the US, but not any tax anywhere else. And they're busy lobbying Congress (along with lots of other multinationals) to let them bring it all back at a 5% tax rate, rather than the 35% everyone else has to pay.
Ireland has changed their laws to prevent anyone using this particular trick in the future, but there are other places you can still use.
FWIW, I have over 30 years experience as an international tax attorney. I've never worked for or with Apple, but the description above is what's been in the tax professional news, and it's all plausible to me.