[nicepplonly]

Apple is simply playing by the rules of capitalism, which are as follows: extract as much value as possible from your customers, employees, etc, for the purpose of enriching capital (shareholders). Apple will follow the law to the letter, but they will do so in whatever way will be maximally best for their own interests. Way she goes.

People keep falling for the just-world fallacy[1], and companies exploit this through the use of propaganda (ads, marketing, yadda yadda) and most people eat it up. No company (not Spotify, not Apple, not the woke-est, most DEI company out there) cares about anything other than profits at the end of the day under capitalism, because capital rules everything and politicians are not exempt from the rules of capital.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis

[klabb3]

> Apple is simply playing by the rules of capitalism

This is reductionist, like saying all biological behavior is about reproducing. Yes there’s a primary goal. No, that does not define or dictate the how. There are people making decisions about what to fight and where to spend the effort. Fighting and weaseling pro-consumer regulations is a choice, obviously, since Apple is being a much bigger crybaby than even other big corporations.

[nicepplonly]

You're trying to add layers of complexity that don't exist. The universe is remarkably uncomplicated, much like biology (which, you correctly assert, only exists to replicate itself). Humans like to anthropomorphize and we have a tendency to see things that aren't there, and we're also highly suggestible and easily manipulated by marketing tactics.

[lhnz]

These aren't "the rules of capitalism" they are just maximally self-interested hubristic behaviours by companies with monopolies. Capitalism doesn't have rules; states have rules. Capitalism has market incentives and stakeholders.

[nicepplonly]

Capitalism is just a system based around the belief that capital appreciation is the ultimate end goal, and the ends justify the means. Everything is fine so long as the GDP keeps going up.

[malermeister]

In capitalism maximally self-interested hubristic behaviours are the rules.

[holmesworcester]

But in reality capitalism does coexist alongside other value systems, no?

Purdue Pharma (opiates) is a good example of a company following its incentives that eventually was brought down for violating broader common sense values.

The values Apple are violating come close to being just as widely held ("something I buy should be mine") though perhaps you need some expertise or professional experience with tech to see the violation clearly enough to be as horrified.

Still, values held within communities of experts (like this one) can also have the power to correct incentive-chasing behavior when it runs amok, if only because sufficient misbehavior can make it harder to hire and retain the best experts. So it's wonderful this conversation is happening here!

[bjtitus]

Comparing a walled garden to opiate proliferation is certainly a choice.

[COGlory]

Yes, which is why I loathe them. They aren't just playing by the rules - they are destroying endless economic opportunity behind them with their rent seeking and desired monopolization. Those things are not compatible with capitalism.

They have decoupled their incentives from their users incentives to extract more profit, and then they lie and use scare tactics to gaslight their users into thinking this what they want.

[malermeister]

You're right. In reality it is not Apple I loathe, but the capitalist system of which it is an outgrowth.

[nicepplonly]

I don't think capitalism is inherently bad, but the system we have is bad. Adam Smith wrote a lot about this, in particular he loathed landlords and entities that suck value out of the system while offering little in return. Apple is a weird case, because arguably they do create a lot of value, but currently we have a problem where that value isn't returned to the broader society, instead it goes into the hands of a small minority of people and groups.

Asymmetries need to be balanced, such as the balance between labour and capital. Unions help labour, but thanks to a decades-long propaganda campaign against unions, we no longer have that push back against capital.

Personally I think the problem will only get worse, so I'd suggest buying the S&P 500 with as much cheap leverage as you can afford.