Comment by creer

> couldn’t the companies with excess profits just pay they employees more

Would that improve productivity (for that company)? Do most people refuse to work for Apple because it doesn't pay enough? Is apple limited by lack of productivity? Is Apple limited by lack of R&D budget? Would Apple release on the world more, better stuff if it paid 10% more?

Then too, most US Apple employees own a lot of Apple shares - they do get paid more when Apple pays dividends, buys back, increases the share price (/ shrinks the number of shares - same thing). Even recent Apple employees who did buy/ get the shares they could really did very well! They are shareholders.

As it is, Apple has a large number of employees in the most expensive areas of the world. It's not exactly that it's desperately skimping on employee compensation.

My impression is that Apple, still now, has a hard time finding worthwhile things to do with its profit. It generates a lot of cash, uses everything it can manage, and releases the rest productively.