Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site loral.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!simard
From: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.micro.apple,net.flame
Subject: Re: Apple Shafts America; or, The Computer For the Rich of Us
Message-ID: <508@loral.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Sep-84 16:01:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: loral.508
Posted: Mon Sep 24 16:01:06 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Sep-84 03:31:50 EDT
References: <1164@hao.UUCP>
Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego, CA
Lines: 42

>     Why is it that any sleezy, (sic) slimy, dirty action by a corporation  is
>excused  as  the  corporation's obligation to it's stockholders?  Are there no
>decent owners of stock in this country?  Is it really a businessman's ethic to
>be a greedy, moneygrubbing SOB at the expense of his customers?

     What do you mean by sleazy?  If you mean that you think everyone in those
glass  towers is another J. R. Ewing, you're entertaining a myth.  If you mean
that the management won't sell something unless the sale  is  profitable  then
that is not sleazy, it's inevitable, and desirable.

     There is a word for businesses that are not run that way: bankrupt.

>     For some reason, I thought Apple was a little different.  Note  the  past
>tense.

     No, it follows the same rules.  You can tell because they  are  still  in
business.

>     I paid list price because when I got mine that's all there was.  If I had
>thought the $2400 machine I was buying would devaluate ~$1000 in six months, I
>can assure you that I would have waited.  But then if I and all the others who
>bought  in  the first 100 days had waited, all the rest of you would have been
>able to pick up the Mac for $100 - and you would have said no, thank you.

     Most new items are placed on the market at a price gauged by the  manage-
ment  to be appropriate.  When sales figures arrive that show the decision was
inappropriate, adjustments are made.  Sure it's annoying to see the sale price
drop  after  you've paid the higher price, but consider this: if the price had
not dropped, would you now be any richer?  What would the cost be?   You  must
have  felt  that  the item was worth what you paid for it, otherwise you'd not
have made the purchase. Has the item changed?

     Neither Apple nor the company you work for can exist without engaging  in
profitable  enterprise.   Your  paycheck  attests to that.  If it were not for
"moneygrubbers", you'd be out of work.
-- 
[     I am not a stranger, but a friend you haven't met yet     ]

Ray Simard
Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
{ucbvax, ittvax!dcdwest}!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!simard