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Tim Cook: Apple doesn't donate to political candidates and PACs shouldn’t exist
- ulfw 7y agoSo Apple doesn't do lobbying? Because that's the same thing basically
- AstralStorm 7y agoNo, PAC are direct campaign and committee funds. Apple does spend millions on lobbyists.
- simonh 7y agoPaying politicians (through their campaign funds) because they hold certain views is quite different from trying to persuade politicians of a certain view without giving them a financial incentive. Furthermore with lobbying the activity is largely in public, while it can be unclear on what basis or understandings direct campaign donations are made.
- mikojan 7y ago> Furthermore with lobbying the activity is largely in public Disregarding popular movements that's not how lobbying works at all. No private special interest group is going to be advertising the many ways in which it is trying to influence a person holding public office. You subscribe to a service providing you with personal data, you attend the same events, you help them. For example by commenting on or even drafting legislative texts.
- caprese 7y agoDoesnt donate to political candidate Doesnt run a PAC Doesnt NOT donate to PAC, which can be for any cause or even a political candidate and also anonymous Cheeseburgers shouldnt exist either, I still eat them
- Tomminn 7y agoOkay, so Cook is implying here that Apple's maneuvers are not only restricted by rule of law, but by some underlying ethical principles. This model is bolstered by similar pronouncements he's made on privacy. Apple is a company that benefits enormously from the intellectual and physical infrastructure of the United States. From this, many onlookers derive the ethical principle that Apple should pay its "fair share of tax". So Cook's Apple must also have a meta-ethics that somehow judges this is not an important ethical principle. Part of me wonders if this meta-ethics involves a cost-benefit analysis. And wonders when the rubber hits the road whether Apple's ethical principles actually go beyond the default corporate ethics of maximizing shareholder value within the rule of law. On the other hand, anyone saying bad things about PACs, and good things about privacy, is fine and dandy with me. Which means this ad must be made for people like me.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- simonh 7y agoOn what basis do you decide that Apple doesn't pay it's 'fair share'? On the face of it they seem to pay a fair bit. They are the largest single tax payer in the world, with a global effective tax rate of 24.6%. I'm sure there are some ways they minimise their tax bills, but it's not as though they don't pay tax or even pay very little tax overall.
- keiferski 7y agoApple spent years keeping over a hundred billion offshore in order to avoid paying taxes.
- simonh 7y agoApple paid taxes on all of those funds, in the jurisdictions in which the money was earned just like any other company. The US is the only country I'm aware of that charges tax on income earned abroad. The US system is ludicrous. A few years ago a British politician, who has never resided long term in the US but who's mother was a US citizen, renounced his dual US nationality because the US tried to tax him on his sale of his house here in the UK.
- airnomad 7y agoHow little money FAANG spend for lobbying is a compliment to US political system. Few millions a year for companies doing 10s or 100s billions in revenue, that's really rounding error. And they would spend more if ROI is there but obviously it is not.
- AstralStorm 7y agoWhy is it good when it is effective but relatively cheap? It says more on US politicians being cheap and essentially easy to indirectly bribe.
- threatofrain 7y agoHow does Google and company use their lobbying budget to bribe a politician? Vacation to the Maldives?
- sacheendra 7y agoFunding their campaign for re-election in the form of ads.
- threatofrain 7y agoIn what way does Google provide advertising favors for political campaigns? Discounts to their ad program? Downgrading opponent visibility?
- rayiner 7y agoGoogle can’t fund anyone’s campaign for re-election.
- rayiner 7y agoWhy would it be cheap if it is effective? It’s a zero sum game and there are intensely competing corporate interests. If it were highly effective, the price would be bid up.
- mikojan 7y agoApple is great. Thank you, Apple. And thank you, HN, for helping Apple with spreading more facts about Apple.
- otalp 7y ago"Apple CEO Tim Cook will host a fundraiser with House Speaker Paul Ryan next week as the iPhone maker tries to strengthen its relationships with key Republicans" (2016) https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/tim-cook-apple-paul-ryan-fundraiser-224554 https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/tim-cook-apple-paul-r... So much for privacy/environmental sustainability I guess
- paxys 7y ago> Cook is hosting the fundraiser on his own accord, as Apple does not have a corporate political action committee like Facebook, Google and other tech giants in Silicon Valley
- GrumpyNl 7y agoWhen you are Cook and CEO of Apple, there is no such thing as personal.
- nothrabannosir 7y ago[downvoted comment—] Is this not a fair comment? Surely Tim is not sitting there chatting about cricket and green tea?
- chrischen 7y ago> as the iPhone maker tries to strengthen its relationships with key Republicans
- Tsubasachan 7y agoDoesn't Apple have a fiduciary duty to its shareholders? Sure American politics is corrupt but it would be utterly asinine for a big company like Apple not to engage with politicians.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- keiferski 7y agoI just found this website by googling and thus I'm not sure of its credibility, but if I'm reading it correctly, Apple contributed $1,677,466 and spent $6,620,000 on lobbying in 2018. Seems like that could qualify as a "political donation." https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000021754 https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000021754
- Despegar 7y agoThose are from employees of Apple. And I have no problem with Apple lobbying if they're going to lobby for federal privacy legislation that is as strong as GDPR. The ad-tech giants are certainly lobbying to defang it. https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-cal-privacy-act-20190419-story.html https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-cal-p...
- nagVenkat 7y agoPeople really don’t know how to read opensecrets info, do they?
- rayiner 7y agoIt’s a dark pattern. The page clearly implies that Apple is contributing that money.
- zimpenfish 7y agoIt does say "All contributions to candidates from Apple Inc came from individuals" at the bottom but you need to open up the "VIEW ALL CANDIDATE RECEIPTS" before you get "The organizations themselves did not donate" in red.
- wsc981 7y agoWell, the original article states the following: - Apple, as a company, does not donate any money to political candidates, CEO Tim Cook said on Tuesday. - He also said he doesn't believe that political action committee (PACs) should exist. PACs allow corporations and others to secretly donate large sums to campaigns. - While Apple doesn't try to get particular politicians elected, it still spend millions annually on lobbying, records show. - Cook explained, 'We focus on policies, not politics.' I think this is an excellent stance, admirable and more companies (e.g. Google) should follow suit.
- jaabe 7y agoOur of all the tech companies that lobby, I wish Apple did more. They are the only major privacy concerned tech-giant and they produce the least environmentally damaging hardware. I agree it shouldn’t happen, but if politicians have to listen to money, at least listen to the lesser evil.
- vnorilo 7y agoPrivacy is a differentiator for Apple. If the regulators forced others to respect it more, it would arguably not be in Apple's best interests.
- koliber 7y agoI want to create a lobby group / PAC that will promote the idea and lobby US lawmakers to make lobbying illegal. Once it is successful enough to be unable to do it's job, it will dissolve, distributing its money to pre-appointed charities.
- alkonaut 7y agoIs there any megacorp that doesn't do political donations (Neither as a corporation or from upper management) and also has a $0 lobbying budget?
- po 7y agoEveryone's favorite bookmarking site likes to call attention to this sort of thing every now and then. It's pretty surprising IMO: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1120320958382755840 https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1120320958382755840
- rudiv 7y agoWhat does the fox say? I want to be President, says he.