Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Some questions to APPLE
Message-ID: <1990Nov16.040108.9863@phri.nyu.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 90 04:01:08 GMT
References: <1990Nov15.044137.13223@cs.uoregon.edu> <1990Nov15.182253.5628@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: news@phri.nyu.edu (News System)
Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City
Lines: 49


mckenzie@elaine5.stanford.edu (David McKenzie) writes:
> They (and NeXT) are in business to make as much money as possible

	I was going to flame mings@comix.cs.uoregon.edu (Ming Yau So) for
his silly harangue, and even had some of it written, but then I changed my
mind and didn't post it.  Then I read David's comment and couldn't resist.

	Folks, take that line from David's article I quoted above and print
it out in big type and paste it on your office/terminal-room/whatever wall,
right above where you read (and post) netnews.  The next time you are about
to post a "why does X do Y!" rant, re-read it, and think about it.

	Every company in a capitalistic society basically does everything
they do to make as much money as possible.  Sure, some companies do some
things because they have a sense of social responsibility, and some
companies probably even do things because their CEOs are raving psychopaths,
but by and large, every decision a company makes is made with the hope of
increasing the amount of money they make.

	There is nothing inherently wrong with this, at least not if you
believe in the capitalist system.  The debate about the relative merits of
capitalism could fill many newsgroups (and probaby does), but it certainly
doesn't belong here, so we'll just take it as a given.

	Why did Apple make the si only take 1/3 height disks?  Because they
thought it would make them more money.  Why did they give the 128, 512, and
Plus no expansion slots?  Because they thought it would make them more
money.  Why did they give the II 6 expansion slots?  Because they thought it
would make them more money.  Why the cx only 3 slots and the si only one
(and a funny one at that)?  Same reason.  I'm sure even such trivial things
as changing the exterior paint color from beige to grey (platinum, if you
insist) was done because somebody thought it would make them more money.

	Let me give you another example.  Recently, MacConnection announced
that they had stopped using styrofoam peanuts as packing material for
environmental reasons.  Much as I applaud their decision (being the rabid
environmentalist that I am), I have to realize that at least part of the
decision had to do with making more money.  If there were doing it for
purely altruistic reasons, would they be making their decision the focus of
their current ads, and touting it so loudly in their catalog?  They know
that, by switching from styrofoam to newsprint for packing, they make people
like me more likely to order from them instead of the competition, and thus
they will, ready now, make more money.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
"Arcane?  Did you say arcane?  It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"