Tim Cook Isn't the Problem, Capitalism Is

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

joshgolka

14 points

17 comments

victorwynne.comOtherstory

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CapitalismCorporate ResponsibilitySocial Justice

Key topics

Capitalism

Corporate Responsibility

Social Justice

The article argues that Tim Cook and Apple are not the problem, but rather capitalism is, and the discussion revolves around the role of corporations in society and their moral principles.

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01Story posted
Sep 8, 2025 at 1:22 PM EDT
4 months ago
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Sep 8, 2025 at 1:33 PM EDT
11m after posting
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14 comments in 0-2h
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Sep 9, 2025 at 10:32 AM EDT
4 months ago
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Discussion (17 comments)

Showing 17 comments

Finnucane

4 months ago

1 reply

But if customers say, fuck that noise, and stop buying the products, then it harms his company and violates his 'fiduciary duty.' See also: Elon Musk.

taylodl

4 months ago

1 reply

Musk was a special member of the administration and with DOGE went waaaaaaaay beyond looking out for the interests of Tesla's and SpaceX's shareholders. Musk, through the smokescreen of DOGE, actively undermined federal regulatory agencies who were investigating Tesla and SpaceX. Musk attended political rallies and gestured the sig heil. Musk bankrolled the Trump campaign in a very significant way. This is not what the other tech CEOs are doing.

Musk has put himself in a position where it's very difficult for him to claim "it was just business." That's a large part of why Tesla sales are now tanking.

Finnucane

4 months ago

1 reply

And now Cook, Zuck, and the rest of those guys are just riding his coattails. Gladly. They seem pretty happy about it. Customers will judge. We have no obligation to the shareholders.

taylodl

4 months ago

That's funny. Here's a list of the attendees:

- Mark Zuckerberg (Meta)

- Tim Cook (Apple)

- Sundar Pichai (Google/Alphabet)

- Satya Nadella (Microsoft)

- Sam Altman & Greg Brockman (OpenAI)

- Sergey Brin (Google co-founder)

- Safra Catz (Oracle)

- Lisa Su (AMD)

- Bill Gates (Microsoft founder)

What are customers going to do, stop using tech? I suppose you can feel good about Intel. Anyway, you're invited to the White House for a policy discussion involving tech, an industry in which your company is a prominent player, what are you going to do? Let your competitors sway policy?

hunglee2

4 months ago

1 reply

Arguably capitalism isn't the problem either, because in its purest form the state would simply be a neutral platform, rather than an active participant, in the game of free market competition.

What Trump is doing is putting capital 'under the authority of the state' very similarly to what China did in bringing down in 2020 - cancelling Ant Finance IPO, bring down Jack Ma, breaking the edtech industry, setting salary limits for finance sector etc.

OP is right though - you can't blame Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg or any of the CEO's who are kowtowing to the King. Role of the CEO is to protect shareholder value, and maximally increase revenue and profit. Hard to see how refusing Donald Trump what he demands would support those objectives.

FridayoLeary

4 months ago

3 replies

They ended their dei programs so quickly that i can only assume they were waiting for an excuse.

hunglee2

4 months ago

1 reply

yep, double quick time. Spoke with a marketing agency earlier this year talking about 'state of the market' fully expecting downbeat report, only to be told that 'business was going great in 2025'. Upon further probing, it turned out that all of this new business was auditing company digital assets and strip out DEI

znpy

4 months ago

Did people actually believe the whole corporate DEI parade was a real thing?

AnimalMuppet

4 months ago

1 reply

Maybe those programs only existed because they were kowtowing to the previous king.

FridayoLeary

4 months ago

Exactly my point. DEI is nothing more then soft racism imo and one of the most accepted forms of virtue signalling today. In that case the "king" was the slightly hysterical progressive ideology that's been around since covid.

taylodl

4 months ago

Lessons learned from Bud Light

FridayoLeary

4 months ago

1 reply

Don't trust them. It's as simple as that. Whether they are pretending to care about social justice issues, or flattering trump, it's all an act. They have clearly shown they will change their moral principles faster than you can change your socks.

taylodl

4 months ago

2 replies

Don't trust a capitalist? You've been told that for nearly 200 years now. The good thing about what's happening now is the veil has been removed, and people can see the true nature of capitalism now that it has been laid bare. Previous administrations worked hard to make capitalism appear more humane. Well, with Trump that ship has sailed. The good news is that's the spark of realization that can lead to meaningful change.

AnimalMuppet

4 months ago

1 reply

The veil is less removed now than it was in, say, the 1890s. People then decided that capitalism needed to be regulated, not eliminated. Don't hope for more now.

taylodl

4 months ago

I think people are going to discard it. It'll be interesting to see what people propose to replace it with considering all the alternatives have failed. Maybe you're right and we'll resume with a stricter regulation. At this point though we have bigger fish to fry: Americans have just learned they have no inalienable rights. All their rights are what the government allows them to have. Several people have come to that realization over the lifetime of the US, but now that realization is hitting everyone en masse. How that is dealt with my drive how capitalism is dealt with.

FridayoLeary

4 months ago

1 reply

That's where you're wrong. Corporations were forced to pick a side in a culture war they wanted nothing to do with. Now they are reverting to their normal position. Dei brings no economic benefit for a company so they dumped it. Nor does criticising the president.

Capitalism should be recognised for what it is: an amoral engine for economic growth, and the best one at that. Companies have no business preaching to the public the opinions of whichever political party is in charge.

JohnFen

4 months ago

> Capitalism should be recognised for what it is: an amoral engine for economic growth

This is exactly why capitalism needs strong and active regulation to protect people from it. Capitalism is, effectively, sociopathic.

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