I could not disagree with you more vehemently.
I don't see that statement as being any more valid than the proposition that guns kill people. Our economic problems stem from increasing government instrusion, regulation and taxation, not managers who push their people too hard and accumulate huge sums of money.
Last I heard, Apple Computer had $40 billion in cash reserves. Yes, that is huge. But if you consider what a tough economy, changes in techonology, unexpected market forces and skyrocketing energy costs can do to a company, it is a smart move to have that cash, especially given what we see happening in the next three years to the economy. It is going to get worse, much worse.
Apple Computer (and Steve Jobs by extension) show what can be great about this country by designing and marketing products that create jobs and opportunities across the spectrum, from employees at the Apple Store to entrepreneurs who write little applications for the iPhone and sell them for a buck apiece.
While I would like to see their products manufactured in the USA, our government, through a variety of mechanisms, does not make it a viable proposition to do that. And that must change.
You may not like Apple products or Steve Jobs himself, and you aren't alone. That's your business. But many people don't feel the way you do, and that is their business.
Steve Jobs may indeed be an asshole, as you say. I don't know, never met him. It would be great if our Captains of Industry were virtuous, but I would rather have an asshole who provides jobs and products that people are willing to buy, than someone who is a saint but runs the business into the ground or produces products that don't sell.
I want capitalists running business who can produce products, provide jobs, and contribute to our national wealth.
When I went to get my knee operated on, I knew the physician who did it, and he was a jerk who treated the techs like crap, and was occasionally rude to his patients.
But he also had the best outcomes. I didn't care if he declined to hold my hand after the operation. But I am walking around on the same knee today with no problems.
This is precisely the same set of tactics that conservatives on this board and elsewhere complain (and rightfully so) about the leftists using.
Disagree with me all you like. I prefer to do business with honest people, not amoral assholes.