RUSH: Jason in Colorado Springs, it’s great to have you. You’re next on the EIB Network. Hi, sir.
CALLER: Hi. Great to talk to you. You’re a good American.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: I just had a couple quick comments about Steve Jobs.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: You know, everybody calls these people evil capitalists, but if you get rid of the evil capitalists, you get rid of the iPhone and everything else — and he had two things going for him that made him really successful, and that’s the fact that he gave you technology but he didn’t give it to you all at once. He would give it to you in increments and you could get new iPhones every six months or so.
RUSH: Well, not that frequently. Generally every year. What is your point about evil capitalists?
CALLER: (beeping) Well, the fact is everybody calls them evil capitalists but they’re the ones that move our country forward —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait.
CALLER: (crosstalking)
RUSH: Everybody…?
CALLER: — and if you don’t have capitalism you don’t have invention.
RUSH: Wait, who is calling everybody “evil capitalists”?
CALLER: Well, the liberals, people that are at, you know —
RUSH: What does that have to do…? Are they calling Jobs an evil capitalist, too, is that what you mean?
CALLER: (beeping) What’s that?
RUSH: I’m trying to figure out what Jobs… Are they calling Jobs an evil capitalist, too?
CALLER: (beeping) Well, no. I’m saying that Jobs is a capitalist. I mean that’s — that’s what he did. He — he made money by giving people what they wanted. He gave them a good product and he made money off it. That’s — that’s the definition of a capitalist —
RUSH: Okay. True.
RUSH: Very, very true. Okay. All right, I got it, yeah. Jobs —
CALLER: (crosstalking)
RUSH: (sigh) So you’re defining how evil capitalists do what they do? You’re explaining that?
CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. And I’m kind of wondering how they lump him in as evil when they give you something you want, you get money for it, and you call ’em evil for getting rich off of it.
RUSH: That’s why I’m asking who the “they” is, because I think the “they” loved Steve Jobs.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: I mean —
CALLER: (crosstalking)
RUSH: I mean, every hero of the left loved Steve Jobs, from people in music to movies to entertainment to Occupy Wall Street. They loved Steve Jobs! I contend it’s only because they really had no idea who he was and what he did. You know, one of the first things the new CEO of Apple has done? Some of you, this may shock you. When Jobs took over Apple in 1997 or ’98, whatever it was, he wiped out every philanthropic program they had. He said, “I don’t believe in giving away money especially when we’re losing it.” So Apple engaged in no public philanthropy, charitable giving, and that lasted throughout Jobs’ tenure as CEO. The new CEO, one of the first things he did was to institute a matching charitable program for every Apple employee.
Apple will now match every employee’s donation to a nonprofit up to $10,000. That’s one of the first things the new CEO did. Jobs was a pure, unfettered, unfiltered capitalist. He was totally consumed by profit, from the days in the courage with Wozniak forward, 100% profit focus. Jobs got away with some amazing stuff. The left loved this guy. He had Bill Clinton calling him for advice on what to do about Monica Lewinsky! He refused to take a call from Obama because Obama didn’t place the call himself. This is according to Walter Isaacson’s book. They weren’t deferential enough. He told Obama — and, by the way, this kind of dovetails. Jobs, in his mind, was a leftist. But he told Obama, “You’re a one-term president. If you don’t straighten this stuff out, you have no prayer. You are a one-termer.”
He told him this year ago. It’s fascinating to learn about this guy and so forth. He told Rupert Murdoch at dinner at his house, Jobs’ house, “Rupert, Fox News is destroying your legacy. You don’t want to be responsible for that. The dynamic in America today is no longer liberal and conservative. It’s constructive versus destructive — and you, Rupert, with Fox News, are being destructive.” Well, I think that’s flat-out BS. (laughing) I think it’s wrong as it could be. But when it comes to business, I’ll tell you what Jobs… Even among people who know that he was (and this is the guy’s point) a full-fledged capitalist, that doesn’t matter ’cause he gave ’em what they want. He gave ’em what they want and not as often as they wanted it. He kept holding it back, make ’em want it even more, combined with not releasing anything ’til it was really ready to go, but that was part of the strategy.