The Mystery of Steve Jobs’s Public Giving
September 2, 2011 5:02 PM   Subscribe

"Despite accumulating an estimated $8.3 billion fortune through his holdings in Apple and a 7.4 percent stake in Disney (through the sale of Pixar), there is no public record of Mr. Jobs giving money to charity." Bono is sure he's a poetic fellow who thinks about these things, so that's ok. Apple does sell a special iPod nano and iPad 2 Smart Cover, in partnership with Bono's "(Product)RED" organisation, to raise money to fight malaria. Meanwhile The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over $25 billion to fight poverty and ill health around the world since 1994.
posted by joannemullen (34 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is sort of a weird "We don't have any evidence that he beats his wife" attack article and it's not going super well here. -- restless_nomad



 
Oh good the weekend.
posted by shakespeherian at 5:04 PM on September 2, 2011 [11 favorites]


I have long been a huge admirer of Mr. Jobs and consider him the da Vinci of our time

Um, yeah. Maybe Sorkin should read up a bit more on Da Vinci.
posted by Wyatt at 5:06 PM on September 2, 2011


Ugh, seriously?
posted by june made him a gemini at 5:06 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Fucking GUY!
posted by Pecinpah at 5:08 PM on September 2, 2011


Yes, he's a bad bad man.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:09 PM on September 2, 2011


So what? It would certainly be nice if he gave away some of his money, but he's under no obligation to.
posted by blaneyphoto at 5:09 PM on September 2, 2011


Furthermore - and without at all diminishing what the Gates Foundation has done - who's to say that Jobs hasn't made charitable donations in secrecy?
posted by jquinby at 5:11 PM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


Absence of evidence is clear and convincing proof of absence.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:12 PM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


Congrats, I think this is the first time I've seen someone use an FPP on the blue to express a grudge they have with another user here.
posted by gman at 5:12 PM on September 2, 2011 [8 favorites]


Also, Apple does not match employee's charitable contributions, unlike pretty much every other big tech company.
posted by w0mbat at 5:12 PM on September 2, 2011


A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, some thought that government could help people.
posted by lukemeister at 5:12 PM on September 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


No empathy. Less tact than a gonad. Lame.
posted by panaceanot at 5:12 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


gman, the worst of it is, it's going to work.

This was a thoughtful and interesting essay. What a shame it is presented as an anti-Jobs screed.
posted by zarq at 5:16 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


In other Apple news, a San Francisco resident recently allowed their private investigators to search his home, believing they were police officers. SFPD has changed their story and now says some real plainclothes officers were actually there, but waited outside while Apple's people went in. Sorry if this is a derail; perhaps someone should make an fpp about it?
posted by finite at 5:16 PM on September 2, 2011


In 1997, Apple had about 11,000 employees. It now has about 50,000 employees. Seems like Job's has generated charity in the amount of a good $5 billion just last year (assume each of the employees is paid, on average, $125k).
posted by saeculorum at 5:17 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


And, of course, it is very possible that Mr. Jobs, who has always preferred to remain private, has donated money anonymously or has drafted a plan to give away his wealth upon his death. (There has long been speculation that an anonymous $150 million donation to the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco may have come from Mr. Jobs.) His wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, sits on the boards of Teach for America and the New Schools Venture Fund, among others, and presumably donates money to those organizations, though neither she nor her husband are listed among its big donors.

Um, yes. Giving anonymously seems very likely to me. It seems totally wrongheaded to pull this accusatory shit when this is such a huge qualifier.

In its own way for the rich, publicly and loudly giving to charity might be the most effective way of being showy about your status and wealth. I can certainly see Jobs giving charitably without being into that whole scene.
posted by naju at 5:18 PM on September 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


"Seems like Job's has generated charity in the amount of a good $5 billion just last year (assume each of the employees is paid, on average, $125k)."

So, Apple employees don't have to actually do anything? They just get ~$125K a year? Is it like a lottery or something to get hired there? Where do I sign up???!!!
posted by MikeMc at 5:20 PM on September 2, 2011


Well, creating ~40k well paying jobs is still pretty good.
posted by gyc at 5:22 PM on September 2, 2011


Hiring more people so you can make more money isn't charity.
posted by humanfont at 5:22 PM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


I'm a bit daft. Where is the worth of this aspersion coming from?
posted by taff at 5:24 PM on September 2, 2011


"In America, we like everyone to know about the good work we're doing anonymously."
posted by the painkiller at 5:25 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Seems like Job's has generated charity in the amount of a good $5 billion just last year (assume each of the employees is paid, on average, $125k).

Employment is charity now? Randroid alert!
posted by mek at 5:25 PM on September 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


humanfont: "Hiring more people so you can make more money isn't charity."

Still, we'll take what we can get.
posted by Riki tiki at 5:26 PM on September 2, 2011


assume each of the employees is paid, on average, $125k

Um, what? Why do you assume that? That seems an awfully high average to me.
posted by parrot_person at 5:26 PM on September 2, 2011


So what? It would certainly be nice if he gave away some of his money, but he's under no obligation to.

I know that if I came to hold billions of dollars I would feel compelled to give a great deal of it away in some attempt to better the world. Just because Jobs isn't legally obligated doesn't mean that he isn't ethically obligated and we can, as a society, try to encourage such ethics.

That said, Jobs may very well give generously to charity, albeit anonymously.
posted by boubelium at 5:27 PM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


Just because Jobs isn't legally obligated doesn't mean that he isn't ethically obligated

See, I think exactly the opposite. I happen to give away about 10K/year but that doesn't mean I'm obligated to just because I can - and neither is Jobs.
posted by blaneyphoto at 5:29 PM on September 2, 2011


This is a fucking shitty thing to say, print, publish, or post given the fact themanshealth is so bad.
posted by tomswift at 5:29 PM on September 2, 2011


gyc: Well, creating ~40k well paying jobs is still pretty good.

Realistically, if Apple hadn't existed, their role in the market would have been taken up by their competitors. Those competitors would have had to hire employees as well.
posted by Mitrovarr at 5:30 PM on September 2, 2011



Hiring more people so you can make more money isn't charity.


It's better than charity.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:31 PM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


Princess Celestia, I think, has something relevant to this discussion.
posted by running order squabble fest at 5:33 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Framing a discussion ostensibly about philanthropy, with a backdrop of terminal cancer, in a Mac vs. PC format is perhaps the ultimate flame bait. Not what I think the front page of MeFi should be about.
posted by panaceanot at 5:33 PM on September 2, 2011 [4 favorites]


Seems like Job's has generated charity in the amount of a good $5 billion just last year (assume each of the employees is paid, on average, $125k).

Wowsers, as others have pointed out that is some crazy thinking. Charity is the voluntary giving without the expectation of repayment, whereas when Apple pays it employees it is compensating workers for their labour.

If you think your paycheck is an act of charity, then you must not think your labour is worth much at all.
posted by boubelium at 5:33 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


This is a fucking shitty thing to say, print, publish, or post given the fact themanshealth is so bad.

Whatever is wrong with him probably won't require $8.3bn to cure, unless he's aiming at curing death itself. And you'd think in light of the man's unfortunate health problems he ought to be turning his attentions toward putting his fortune to good while he's still around to see it done.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 5:35 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


This seems appropriate.

Also, I hadn't heard the (Product)RED connection to malaria before--only AIDS-- but it is apparently associated with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
posted by kimota at 5:35 PM on September 2, 2011


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