Apple is now the #1 most profitable publicly traded company in the United States, having just shouldered past Exxon to the top of the list. That is an incredible accomplishment which can be laid largely at the feet of Steve Jobs, almost undoubtedly the greatest genius of product design (and marketing) of the early millennium.
Apple is a wonderful company that has made life both easy and interesting for a lot of Applephiles. Yeah, Apple computers are great and the iPad is wonderful and the iPhone is a truly smart phone, but Steve Jobs made a difference mostly in the world of relatively well-off smug students, yuppies, gen-Xers and gen-Yers.
By contrast, Bill Gates has saved billions of lives. Yes, not millions but billions. And he’s been helping people who have far more pressing needs than a better browsing experience or a cell phone that can tell them in a soothing female advice how to get to the best vegan restaurant in town or how many miles it is from Albuquerque to Phoenix.
Apple products, considered as manufactured goods are way overpriced by comparison with similar products by HP. Lenovo, Gateway, Acer, and others. But Apple products are really no better constructed than those manufactured by the aforementioned competitors. Apple computers, just like the competitions, can fail and arrive “DOA.” And to be truthful, its Applecare division provides technical support that can be worse than those of HP and the rest.
Without its privileged and well-heeled base of fanboys and fangirls, Apple wouldn’t exist. And we’d still have computers. Maybe not as hip and stylish as Apple’s well-designed products, but we’d be computing, we’d have tablets and smartphones, too, because those were all technologies whose time had come. Jobs had a talent for seeing impending needs and developing answers to them before Microsoft and others did, but all of his products use available technology, making it better and cheap enough to incorporate in its products. But of course, Apple has the advantage of economy of scale, which certainly helps.
But none of that is what I’m really getting at here. Jobs didn’t just neglect philanthropy, he seemed actively hostile to it. When he returned to help save Apple after the disastrous period when he was forced out, he closed down its philanthropy operations, never to reopen them. His record as a person has been spotty, too. Not that he never gave money or support to good causes, but his gifting was well out of proportion to his wealth.
By contrast, Bill Gates has been giving billions to good causes to help people living in poverty and squalor. He knows he has more money than he’ll ever need, so he gives it away. He doesn’t build libraries or university buildings with his name on them. No, he gives money to the world’s poor for agricultural development, microfinancing to help poor people start profitable businesses, sanitary water, improved hygiene.
To be fair, Apple has donated 10’s of millions of dollars to fighting AIDS in Africa, and no doubt has saved lives, though it’s harder to put a figure on AIDS cases prevented than on deaths from AIDS. But even so, a few 10’s of millions of dollars is equivalent to a road construction project in the United States. The Gates Foundation has been giving billions of dollars to worthwhile causes designed to improve the lives and prospects of the poor and downtrodden.
As for personal philanthropy on the part of Jobs, whose personal worth was recently estimated to be more than $8 billion, there is little evidence of any. Perhaps he gave in secret. If he did, we may never know. Until then, he comes off as a skinflint who never gave much thought to the good his wealth might do.
Who’s the hero here? The guy who designed world-class gadgets or the guy who’s making life better—and sometimes just possible—for people truly in need. For me, I’ll take Bill Gates.
