When it comes to tech, Apple’s the best of “British”

There are several British hi-fi brands, Linn, Naim, Cambridge Audio….

Are no Consumer Association members ethical consumers any more? I wouldn’t buy any Apple product or service on principle. They are tax avoiders in a league of their own: “Apple Inc established an offshore subsidiary, Apple Operations International, which from 2009 to 2012 reported net income of $30bn, but declined to declare any tax residence, filed no corporate income tax return and paid no corporate income taxes to any national government for five years.” – US congressional report into Apple Inc’s tax arrangements. Job’s notorious aggression affected the whole supply chain, such that 150 employees in their Chinese supplier were ready to commit mass suicide unless things changed. Apple’s iTunes has denuded every town in the UK of its record shops and presumably the rest of the world’s towns too. All to save a few bob per tune (music reduced to penny ‘tunes’ – another Apple degradation of our culture), putting thousands of tax-paying family businesses out of business and funnelling all that money instead to the uber rich who pay little or no tax. Ditto: Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc. So what does the Consumers’ Association do? Gives them accolades and sycophantic reviews like this. Sickening – Michael Young must be spinning in his grave. “It’s only the little people [and businesses] who pay tax”. Too true! It’s about time the CA led the fight against tax avoiders and named and shamed them, instead of publishing fawning promotions of near advertorial ilk.
PS:
We’ve a Novatech PC which has done sterling service as effectively the family computer/server since 2010, as well as one of their powerful laptops, not much younger, which is now being used heavily every day by my daughter for college work. Neither of them has given a moment of trouble. And what does Which? say for them? Virtually zilch! Just two mentions: this c**k-eyed one and another one which asks my same question.

Peter Spring said “I wouldn’t buy any Apple product or service on principle. They are tax avoiders in a league of their own”

Well, they pay tax on all their shops, all their employees, and VAT on all their products, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Many, many companies trade through Offshore havens, so I’m unsure how that makes them evil. And the biggest – the Cayman Islands – is owned by the UK…

But your basic logic is seriously flawed. You say “Apple’s iTunes has denuded every town in the UK of its record shops and presumably the rest of the world’s towns too. but Apple wasn’t even the first company to offer MP3 players and associated sales systems; that was Microsoft. And to blame the inevitable evolution of the entertainment retail industry on iTunes does suggest you have a rather weak grasp on technology, trade and social development.

No mega-corporation is perfect, but Apple produces a superb product and its customer service is better than any other electronics giant I’ve ever dealt with.

Unless there are world-wide tax laws that prohibit corporations using lower-tax countries to minimise their bills, and don’t illegally fiddle their accounts then i see no real way to stop them. It is up to the EU say to harmonise tax levels and laws in its member states so as to get a level playing field.

The High Street is just as subject to “progress”, “evolution” or whatever you like to call it as any other industry and must change to survive. Artificial protection won’t help. One advantage of buying more stuff online may be fewer trips to the shops, thus helping to reduce car pollution?