
Tim Cook: Apple doesn't donate to political candidates and PACs shouldn’t exist - myinnerbanjo
https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-apple-donates-0-to-political-candidates-2019-4
======
otalp
"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-r...](https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/tim-cook-apple-paul-ryan-
fundraiser-224554)

So much for privacy/environmental sustainability I guess

~~~
paxys
> 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

~~~
chrischen
> as the iPhone maker tries to strengthen its relationships with key
> Republicans

~~~
Tsubasachan
Doesn'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.

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keiferski
I 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)

~~~
wsc981
Well, 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.

~~~
viraptor
> We focus on policies, not politics.

I read that as "As long as you vote for what we want, we'll ignore anything
else you may be doing". They can't escape politics if they want to influence
(inter)national policies.

~~~
otalp
"As long as you're giving us tax breaks and not regulating us, we don't care
about your politics when it comes to LGBT/Environment or whatever else
politics is about"

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po
Everyone'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)

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koliber
I 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.

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ulfw
So Apple doesn't do lobbying? Because that's the same thing basically

~~~
simonh
Paying 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
> 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.

------
alkonaut
Is there any megacorp that doesn't do political donations (Neither as a
corporation or from upper management) and also has a $0 lobbying budget?

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airnomad
How 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
Why is it good when it is effective but relatively cheap?

It says more on US politicians being cheap and essentially easy to indirectly
bribe.

~~~
rayiner
Why 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.

~~~
int_19h
Because there are way more politicians than there are companies?

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rudiv
What does the fox say? I want to be President, says he.

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jaabe
Our 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
Privacy is a differentiator for Apple. If the regulators forced others to
respect it more, it would arguably not be in Apple's best interests.

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mikojan
Apple is great. Thank you, Apple. And thank you, HN, for helping Apple with
spreading more facts about Apple.

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caprese
Doesnt 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

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Tomminn
Okay, 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.

~~~
simonh
On 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
Apple spent years keeping over a hundred billion offshore in order to avoid
paying taxes.

~~~
simonh
Apple 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.

~~~
netsharc
> Apple paid taxes on all of those funds, in the jurisdictions in which the
> money was earned just like any other company.

Snort! [https://www.cultofmac.com/302651/apple-avoids-paying-
taxes-i...](https://www.cultofmac.com/302651/apple-avoids-paying-taxes-itunes-
revenue/) , no they pay taxes in Luxembourg and say they have little profit in
other European countries. But can we blame them, I would also try to optimize
my taxes, and even the guy who set up this tax scheme to benefit Luxembourg is
now... the president of the European Commission:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_Leaks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_Leaks)

~~~
simonh
From the article you linked:

>Here’s how Apple avoids paying nearly all taxes in Europe:

That's blatant click-bait. It actually only applies to iTunes revenue which is
a sliver of Apple's overall tax bill, most of which is paid on physical
products taxed like any other manufacturer.

The basic fact is Apple pays a huge tranche of taxes to governments all over
the world, more than any other single tax payer. Picking at little threads
round the edges of their tax practices doesn't change that fact.

~~~
netsharc
> The basic fact is Apple pays a huge tranche of taxes to governments all over
> the world, more than any other single tax payer.

Source please? And more than any single tax payer where? Are you claiming
Apple is the largest tax payer in every tax regime of the world?

> Picking at little threads round the edges of their tax practices doesn't
> change that fact.

OK Mr. Fanboy, nice work diminishing a tax avoidance as "picking at little
threads". Sorry I insulted your idol.

Getting fined by the EC doesn't make it sound like what they did were legal:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_illegal_State_aid_case_agai...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_illegal_State_aid_case_against_Apple_in_Ireland)
. Of course, if the government says it's legal it might as well be legal, it
doesn't mean it's morally correct, no wonder the populists hate the
technocratic governments who are in bed with the corporations.

I guess in your books "they paid enough" is good enough to make them the good
guys.

