@castratikron is right: scale matters. The local government doesn't care if I have a small barbecue, but if I set my own house on fire, it's a problem for them.

@castratikron is right: scale matters. The local government doesn't care if I have a small barbecue, but if I set my own house on fire, it's a problem for them. Ultimately an economy depends on money flowing around; it has no intrinsic value, its economic significance lies in the productive assets left behind in its passing: a factory, an app, a road. Leaving aside the fact that the economy is booming for wealthy companies like Apple, how Apple 'feels' is irrelevant. You're anthropomorphizing. It's a corporation, it doesn't feel anything (like for example, shame or compassion, emotions which can govern human behavior even without explicit regulation). Corporations have to be operated in the public interest---that's their whole original premise, though it seems most people have forgotten it.