Steve Jobs for Congress!
I would never make Steve Jobs run for president. I like him too much. I respect his innovations. And if the man needs to take a sick leave, let him do it. Lord knows our president probably hasn’t slept since he started campaigning for his crazy job. Brilliance requires rest.
Now that said, the esteemed Mr. Jobs needs to head up a finance committee in the legislative arm of his choice, seeing as though Apple ($AAPL) has more cash than the U.S. government.
Now, he’s a smart one, that Steve. Apple isn’t doing much differently from its early days. It just employs a lot more people in a lot more places. But the “think tank” that keeps cranking out the “Oh my God I’ve GOT to have it!” products (says she who is contemplating whether having the new MacBook is more important than rent. Just assure me that it will ship with Lion, and that answer is YES!) is still strategically issuing its brilliance at full price to a growing cult of worshipers.
It gives me pause to say the stock is still a steal here at $400, since you won’t catch me being able to buy much more than a call contract or two. I don’t think this name is the next Berkshire Hathaway, but I do think it’s going to hold its own in this range for the intermediate term.
Everyone wonders whether AAPL is going to issue a dividend, what with all that cash in the bank. And all I have to say is, “Yeah, right!”
What Jobs gets right, that our legislators never will, is spending money on the right things and letting the rest go. Everyone who’s crying (not-so-subtle Boehner reference) that the space program has been abandoned, or that the couple million that goes to a bunch of social programs should be eliminated before, say, Steve Jobs himself pays a cent more in taxes, ought to look at Apple’s business model before drafting up the next round of spending cuts.
At Apple, you don’t have customers — you have fanatics. You don’t have buyers — you have people who camp out all night just to be the first to pay full retail price. You don’t have investors — you have people who need this stock even if they still cling to their tattered-after-two-years PCs.
You have to spend money to make money, but paying a dividend isn’t necessary to bring in more money. Steve Job pays the top minds in technology to keep him on top. Congress pays a nice salary to a bunch of mildly qualified people (in addition to the truly brilliant legislators, who are unfortunately far outnumbered) and sure doesn’t cut THEIR health care even as they threaten to take away yours. Let’s weed out the waste, starting with our Congress critters themselves, and treat America as the high-quality product it is. And that includes taxing its highest-paid citizens at the same rate as the rest of us. Apple doesn’t give away its products, and nobody’s holding their breath waiting for them to go on sale. Nor should our country be on sale, either.
Maybe if we put Jobs in charge of one of the finance committees, that would finally convince Obama to get rid of his damn BlackBerry already?