Apple Computer Reports Its Indirect Employment Impact

Apple has become defensive after the publicity about the ratio between its domestic and foreign workers, which is about 1:10. It hired a firm to calculate the number of indirect jobs that have been created because of its products. There are numerous comments on the use of this method of measuring a firm's employment impact. For example, should a TV manufacturer take credit for the retail employees at Best Buy who sell their products? The best comment was by an MIT professor who said that it is not Apple's responsibility to create US jobs. That is a matter of government policy. Globalization has advanced very rapidly and most governments have not figured out how to deal with it. Corporations have been left to determine its direction by making decisions that they believe to be in their best interest. We used to believe that what is good for our corporations is good for America. This may not have been true in the past, but it less true today.