
Apple redistributes more wealth upward than any corporation or country on earth - huihuiilly
https://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/robert-homan-think-different
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adolph
_" Apple’s revenues come from purchases made by consumers across the entire
wealth distribution, but the moment that money hits Apple’s ledger it comes
under the control of the elite: most shares of Apple, like most shares of
stock in general, are owned by the wealthy. . . . The preponderance of Apple’s
income is transferred to shareholders, who largely fall into the upper echelon
of the economy. . . . Apple’s plans to return an unprecedented $100 billion to
investors over the next year through stock buybacks will only exacerbate this
pool of passive income and thus directly increase income inequality at a level
unknown in recent history."_

I'm trying to square the thesis of the article (Apple stock buybacks mostly
benefit the wealthy) with the NASDAQ data that Institutional Holdings hold
59.73% of Apple stock (0.). Aren't entities like pension systems and the like
big investors in funds (example 1.)?

[0] [https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/aapl/ownership-
summary](https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/aapl/ownership-summary)

[1]
[https://www.trs.texas.gov/Pages/investment_diversification_f...](https://www.trs.texas.gov/Pages/investment_diversification_framework.aspx)

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lupire
What is asserted without evidence ("most shares of stock in general, are owned
by the wealthy") can be dismissed without evidence.

If you count "has a retirement account (pension or 401k)" as "upper echelon",
then sure, stocks are owned by the upper echelon, but there's a goalpost move
in there.

Are low-paid employees and unemployed also buying iPhones? Likely, but what
fraction of the sales base is that? And how valuable is an iPhone to a user,
especially a poor user who doesn't have any other computer or Internet access?
$500 a year (plus more if you can't get by on free wifi) is a screaming deal
for what you get for getting telecom/Internet-enabled, even though I'd still
recommend a $50-$100/yr phone.

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chongli
_In the Harvard Business Review, William Lazonick writes that between 2003 and
2012 more than 54 percent of the earnings of the S &P 500’s public companies
were spent on stock buybacks, with an additional 37 percent going toward
dividends. Such allocations “left very little for investments in productive
capabilities or higher incomes for employees,”_

To that I feel the need to ask: where does that money go, after it gets into
the hands of investors? If they just turn around and invest it into other
companies, then doesn't that money make its way into capital expenditures and
hiring?

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tome
It's not redistribution of wealth. It's selling things that people want.

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ASalazarMX
That's where the money comes from, redistribution of wealth is how efficiently
it returns to the market.

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lupire
Money is not the only form of wealth.

iPhones are wealth.

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Yetanfou
In the Netherlands _tulips_ once were 'wealth', until they were no longer. In
other words, iPhones are not wealth, they're utensils which compete on a
fairly open market against a multitude of competitors. For some there is no
competition as they religiously hold to specific devices or manufacturers but
most users are not like that.

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minikites
>While governments then pump most of their revenues back into their own
militaries, welfare systems, and infrastructure, Apple pays its suppliers and
its workers market rates and then counts billions leftover—$48 billion in
profit last year alone. No country comes even close to running such a surplus,
and no corporation’s is within $20 billion of that amount.

Numbers like this are why I don't understand the argument that "taxes are too
high".

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beamatronic
Because of greed. For some people they can never have enough.

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neolefty
Perhaps also because of cynicism — "Government is doomed; logically we should
starve it."

And possibly naivete — "I'll be better off without government holding me
back."

Not that I'm biased in favor of civilization, government, and a peaceful, just
society ...

