Steve Jobs speaks the truth re teacher unions and Pres Obama

Steve Jobs was a brilliant man and, apparently, insightful on other issues besides tech.

Jobs was critical of the policies of the Obama Adminsitration:

“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for them.

He also saw the problems with teacher unions:

Jobs also criticized America’s education system, saying it was “crippled by union work rules,” noted Isaacson. “Until the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year.

Should be an interesting book.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/book-steve-jobs-annoyed-obama-during-meeting

I wonder how many of these “Oh tax me” people running large corporations, funds etc are really saying the same thing behind closed doors.

Right now they are worried about getting people to invest in their funds or buy their products, so you can’t piss off your customer base. I wonder if behind doors their saying similar things as Jobs but wouldn’t dare say it while they were still alive.

~Matt

i wonder how much advice jobs would want to take on computer design from the best highschool history teacher in america?

-mike

Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for them.

WTF???

Yeah great idea, turn the US into a pollution infested shithole with 9 year olds slaving away making ipods for $1/day

WTF???

Yeah great idea, turn the US into a pollution infested shithole with 9 year olds slaving away making ipods for $1/day

Not that I agree or disagree with this statement, but why is it ok to buy products made in factories where 9 year olds are slaving to make I-pods for 1$ a day and polluting other peoples countries, yet the same is unacceptable for us?

To me this seems like the height of hypocrisy. “Oh WE would never do that here…oh gee send me a cheap I-pod please.”

At some point we have to come to the decision of what is ok and what is not ok. If it ok for another country then why is it not ok for ours? If it is Ok for someone else to live in a shit hole and put their children to work to provide us “Goods” then why is it not ok for ours?

~Matt

Why not? If you are the CEO you can afford to live where the pollution won’t really affect you. They won’t be building these factories in Boca Raton or The Hamptons.

Out of curiosity, did congress finally vote on remove cancer causing cement regulations? I mean, what’s a little cancer when there’s money to be m…I mean jobs to create.

WTF???

Yeah great idea, turn the US into a pollution infested shithole with 9 year olds slaving away making ipods for $1/day

Not that I agree or disagree with this statement, but why is it ok to buy products made in factories where 9 year olds are slaving to make I-pods for 1$ a day and polluting other peoples countries, yet the same is unacceptable for us?

To me this seems like the height of hypocrisy. “Oh WE would never do that here…oh gee send me a cheap I-pod please.”

At some point we have to come to the decision of what is ok and what is not ok. If it ok for another country then why is it not ok for ours? If it is Ok for someone else to live in a shit hole and put their children to work to provide us “Goods” then why is it not ok for ours?

~Matt

Because we (the West) are better than them. It wasn’t always like that - I think around the industrial revolution the West behaved in a similar way with child labour etc…
Only in recent decades has the West started to look at pollution and the environment.

China will probably get to that point eventually.

If they want to crap all over themselves I am not going to feel guilty about buying products there any more than I should feel guilty for paying someone to cut my grass.

I don’t care what the hell they do over there. I make decisions based on whats best for me & my family. That’s who I care about. I don’t need to save the world.

Jobs was critical of the US educational system? I guess anyone who drops out of college or high school can be critical of education.

i hope obama gave him an earful about itunes. seriously, for a super genius, jobs (rest him) designed one steaming pile of turd with that program.

-mike

Why not? If you are the CEO you can afford to live where the pollution won’t really affect you. They won’t be building these factories in Boca Raton or The Hamptons.

Maybe Jobs would have loved that. I don’t know.
I do know that the citizenry of the West uses the ballot box to avoid going in that direction.

Sound advice from someone who put off cancer surgery to try alternative (read: quack) treatments.

Argument from authority apparently only works when you agree with the opinion.

i hope obama gave him an earful about itunes. seriously, for a super genius, jobs (rest him) designed one steaming pile of turd with that program.

-mike

Too bad Jobs never designed a single piece of that overpriced technology in his life. He knew nothing about coding, programming, computer science. Not a single thing. That fat pollack Wozniak is the brains behind all the initial technology. In the last 10 years Apple was only a marketing a distribution company. all design, proudction, and distribution was outsourced.

I’d rather look towards Bill Gates for inspiration and quotes, or Larry Ellison, and they are no inspiration at all.

Steve Jobs was a brilliant man and, apparently, insightful on other issues besides tech.

Jobs was critical of the policies of the Obama Adminsitration:

“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for them.

Jobs is right. We would be much better off if we were more like China. Who needs OSHA and environmental rules for building and running factories? It would be much cheaper and easy to manufacture stuff in the US if there were no laws to protect workers and the environment. All jobs described is how he was able to profit at the expense of others and the environment.

Because we (the West) are better than them.

How are “We” better than them if “We” buy the products produced in shitholes by 9 year olds?** **How is this any different than having a factory doing the same thing in a poor part of Mississippi, but as BarryP pointed out, not in the Hamptons?

In my eyes this doesn’t make us “Better than them” it makes FAR worse. It makes us users of the worst kind. Unwillingly to do what is necessary to have the products we want, but more than willing to abuse other people to get what we want.

I don’t care what the hell they do over there. I make decisions based on whats best for me & my family. That’s who I care about. I don’t need to save the world.

If you don’t care what they do “Over there”, why do you care what they do in another state, county or some other place in the US that “Does not effect you”? Why is some fictitious line on a map matter?

~Matt

i hope obama gave him an earful about itunes. seriously, for a super genius, jobs (rest him) designed one steaming pile of turd with that program.

-mike

Too bad Jobs never designed a single piece of that overpriced technology in his life. .

oh, he might’ve been sort of involved. say, about as involved as obama’s been in designing america’s education system.

-mike

anyway, i don’t really think either of the above quotes attributed to jobs are evidence of much insight. they’re pretty standard water-cooler fare and the sort of stuff that we toss off here in the LR daily. that he was really, really good at computer stuff doesn’t necessarily make him great at other stuff. (any more than donald trump’s real estate career makes him an adept politician. . .) in fact, reading the article in the link, he really comes off as a bit of a jerk. pretty arrogant, really.

i don’t know much about the guy - anyone read any bios or anything?

-mike

Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for them.

WTF???

Yeah great idea, turn the US into a pollution infested shithole with 9 year olds slaving away making ipods for $1/day

What makes you think he was talking about EPA regulations? Do you have any clue regarding the labor-related regulations in this country? Do you know about the Boeing/NLRB case?

Jobs was right, except he should have simply state “all unions” suck big hairy donkey balls–because we all know that they do.

Union suck, period, and anyone that thinks unions add any value to our economy are fools.

So glad they are on the decline though, maybe with them gone this country can get back to being great again.

maybe with them gone this country can get back to being great again.

when exactly was america great? and when exactly will we know it is again?

this sounds to me like a bunch of bob seger/j.c.mellencamp nostalgia for a past where everything was wicked all the time.

-mike

Too bad Jobs could never have been president, because then his opinion would actually matter.