Apple co-founder calls out ‘hypocrisy’ of politicians calling for TikTok ban | CNN Business

https://lemmy.world/post/13520834

Apple co-founder calls out ‘hypocrisy’ of politicians calling for TikTok ban | CNN Business - Lemmy.World

Man who profits from slave labor in China, is against China being fucked with. Why is this news?
Woz doesn’t profit from slave labor in China any more than any of us since he hasn’t actually worked for Apple since like 1985. Since then, he’s started a number of other companies doing a bunch of other stuff, like cleaning space junk most recently

From a quick search:

According to Forbes, Steve Wozniak’s net worth is $140m, making him one of the wealthiest people in the tech industry. This wealth is primarily derived from his early involvement with Apple and his continued ownership of shares in the company.

Right, exactly. He could be worth billions if he wanted to, but he quit Apple early on. He still has shares of Apple which means he is worth that much, but he’s also given shares away to other Apple employees just because he believed they deserved them more. He does profit off slave labor in China, but my argument was that it’s not any more than the rest of us. Basically everyone participating in capitalism will benefit from its worst parts, but Steve Woz is not the poster child for capitalism, greed, or slave labor.

Are you saying “not any more than the rest of us” as in “lots of people own stocks or investment accounts and many of those are in businesses profiting from China”?

I think the difference for me is that he’s in a position to influence things since he’s famous, and he has a ton of money from it already.

Norms need to invest in stocks to be able to retire or afford healthcare. He has the luxury to not need to worry about any of this.

But more importantly, stock holders can absolutely (and should) criticize the companies which they hold stocks in. They have power to vote and influence their business decisions. Owning stock does not mean you have to agree with existing decisions.