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Apple earns more revenue-per-employee than Exxon Mobil

by on26 January 2012

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If this is peak capitalism, we should be worried

Forget about the recent geopolitical controversies over "peak oil" in the global oil economy, or the fact that Google's new privacy policy now allows the company to track literally everything you do around the Web with no opt-out features. Apple has now become one of the best-known, if not most admired and imitated companies on Earth, and last year it earned over $400,000 in revenue per employee - more than both Exxon Mobil and Google.

During the 2012 State of the Union Address in the United States on Tuesday, the president touched upon a central conviction at Apple. The company ultimately believes that the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so far outpaced their American counterparts that "Made in the U.S.A." is no longer a viable option for most Apple products. 

From a recent MSN news report:

"Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas, a small fraction of the over 400,000 American workers at General Motors in the 1950s, or the hundreds of thousands at General Electric in the 1980s. Many more people work for Apple’s contractors: an additional 700,000 people engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple’s other products. But almost none of them work in the United States. Instead, they work for foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost all electronics designers rely upon to build their wares."

The report also detailed a conversation between Steve Jobs and President Barack Obama during a benefit dinner in San Francisco, Northern California last February. All of the Silicon Valley’s top luminaries were invited to ask a question of the U.S. President. When it was Steve Jobs turn to ask his question, President Obama interrupted Mr. Jobs and asked, "What would it take to make iPhones in the United States?" and Mr. Jobs replied bluntly, "Those jobs aren’t coming back."

silicon valley_luminaries_dinner 

“Apple’s an example of why it’s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now,” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House. “If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.”

Last modified on 26 January 2012
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