Steve Jobs and Us, Once Again!

In many of my posts, after Steve Jobs died, I castigated him for his huge ego and complete lack of social conscience, but then after watching an interview of him and Bill Gates at a technology conference, I thought that perhaps I was too hard.  Well, I'm back to my original view--he was a horror and despite his "i" products, which I like as much as the next child, he took far more from this world than he gave back. Yesterday, I watched an interview on MS-NBC of Mike Daisey, author of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," and one story still resonates.  When Jobs was asked about the 100 hours each week that many of his Chinese laborers are forced to work to produce Apple "i" products and their very low pay (approximately $8 per product--iPads sell for $499) contrasted to the 40 hour work week of most American factory workers, Jobs' smug and uncaring reply was that he typically worked more than 40 hours a week.  Many of these same laborers are permanently disabled from repetitive work, poisoned from the chemicals used to clean iPads, or are suicides as a result of horrific working conditions. Yes, Steve Jobs was a monster!

It's time to let go of Jobs though--he's dead and no loss, and to turn our attention to Apple executives, to Jobs' wife and children, and to consumers who purchase Apple products.  Now that we know about these factory conditions, we are as culpable as Jobs in prolonging the suffering. Move manufacturing back to the United States--so what if an iPad costs $999.  If you can't afford it, you don't need it.  Stop participating in the horror--stop buying Apple products until Apple reforms--and for that matter, stop eating pork and chicken bred in cages.  Most markets offer free-range chickens and cage-free eggs--try Whole Foods if you can't find them in your regular market.  We can't pretend any more that we don't know about the suffering caused by our participation as consumers.  Can we?