In the July 27, 2010 WSJ I read where Steve Jobs in the past ten years has been paid over $749 million dollars in pay, bonuses and dividends. Wow, that’s a ton of dough for selling iPods and ear buds. He’s seen as a savior of the American society; a His Apple business is seen as a great model to emulate. How much did the other iBillionaires make? Well,  Larry Ellison received $1.84 billion in compensation. Barry Diller another iDividend guy received $1.14 billion running Expedia. It's really iMazing how much iCompensation they all received. But is it really so great; is what they are doing that reaps them billions really a sustainable model for America? I think not.  I’m all for capitalism; I rather like it, but what I don’t like is the i-business model that has turned us into a generation chasing after fool’s gold while standing in the unemployment line listening to our iPods. Henry Ford created American jobs, but Jobs in company don't do much else beside create personal wealth.

From an economic standpoint the iPod is similar to the airport kiosk where you now print a boarding pass at the ticket window in any airport. Both are convenient, and each destroyed jobs where real people earned a real paycheck. I visited the Iowa-Arizona football game in Tuscan in September. As I walked up to the kiosk in the Tuscan airport my college buddy commented about how convenient the kiosks were that printed off the boarding passes. Looking past the kiosks to the airport ticket counter that stood virutally empty, it  struck me what that meant to the people who once stood there earning a living doing that same thing. Every one of those workers was replaced with an iTicket kiosk while their paycheck went to an Internet mogul as a dividend check. 

Why is the Little Man out of business and out of the success equation?

I'm not sure of how America can continue on this path, because the more convenient we get, the fewer of us have jobs. Follow this time sequence and see if you agree.

1. Because the government is running up the deficit, they have to borrow large sums from foreign countries (by selling t-bills and government bonds to the Chinese and Middle Easterners). The continued borrowing forces Congress to find ways to save money. One way is by having kiosks installed in the airport that conveniently print boarding passes and eliminate “costly employee” salaries.
2. In front of every airport ticket counter we print boarding passes from Kiosks that do the same job that over 100,000 airport clerks used to do. Seems like a good way to save money doesn’t it? Or is it an illusion?
3. Those kiosks displaced workers who no longer can afford to pay their bills so they file for government social programs and we end up spending millions of our tax revenue for welfare programs to maintain unemployed workers.
4. Those displaced workers are no longer paying income taxes and that means fewer tax dollars to buy more kiosks for the airport. (And that may actually be a good thing.)
5. The reduced work force further reduces the tax revenue of our government for repairing roads and other infrastructure projects.
6. Meanwhile a few dozen CEO’s making/selling those kiosks earn hundreds of millions in bonuses and dividend checks while eliminating more American jobs.
7. The US Government is funding those multimillion dollar bonuses by using taxpayer dollars, through the Federal Aviation Administration to buy the kiosks that are placed in the airports, resulting in more million dollar bonuses to Kiosk CEO’s who buy things like large boats and vacation homes in foreign countries.
8. But the kiosk is only the beginning. The Internet allowed millions of passengers to book their own flights while eliminating travel agencies and the thousands of jobs that previously employed real taxpayers. Oops, more shoes in the unemployment line.
9. Next round of layoffs come along and the number of unemployed rises while tax revenues sink further and further. Okay so we borrow more from the Saudis.
10. U.S. Citizens that previously paid income taxes now collect unemployment for extended periods, file for Social Security Disability benefits and can no longer afford to travel.
11. Back to Tuscan, Arizona as we sit on the tarmac listening to our iPods with music we’ve downloaded from the Internet and while it is great technology it too has eliminated production, manufacturing and sales jobs for the record/music industry. Thus another industry of workers is eliminated; this time so Steve Jobs can be paid 700 million in bonuses and dividends.  
12. And with iTunes went vinyl records and tapes and more jobs; just not Steve Jobs. Then because the video and record stores are no longer needed the stores closed, the real estate sits vacant or is leased at reduced rents or the owner who is no longer able to pay real estate taxes, is no longer generating sale’s taxes or employing people so the government or the lender foreclose for either failure to pay the taxes and/or the mortgage.
13. Meanwhile to survive, the wage earners turn to Craig’s List, garage sales and flea markets to avoid paying sales and employment taxes, resulting in lower tax revenues.
14. As a result the U.S. Government doesn’t have enough tax revenue to run the country so it borrows money from those governments/countries that do have the jobs manufacturing the iPods and airport kiosks in some Asian country that subsidized their manufacturing industry.
15. Because the U.S. Government is borrowing so much from foreign countries, is running up the deficit and seeing lower tax revenues being generated, our Congressmen keep trying to find more ways to save money.
16. One way to save money is by firing workers and placing kiosks installed in the airport that conveniently print boarding passes and eliminate “costly employees”.

Common sense isn’t so common when it comes to our jobs.

The New America is built on an iLogical foundation – The American economic foundation is on unsustainable business model that lines the pockets of the few while draining the U.S. Treasury into the vaults of foreign countries and can continue only so long the poor are sent a check by some government welfare program. When the checks are no longer in the mail then all hell will break loose. As my college buddy pointed out, it takes only three days without food for the populous to break out into riots. So let us enjoy iTunes on our iPods while we wait in the unemployment line waiting for yet another handout. And of course it doesn't end there because those of you driving a Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Audi and any other foreign manufactured product are taking the wheels off the American workers ride to success. Keep driving it while you still can.

We can continue to buy Apples and oranges by the boat load, all manufactured in foreign factories with sales in the billions to Americans that aren’t considered good enough to do the work to manufacture them, but sooner or later a worm will crawl out of the core and then you will understand why I drive a Ford.  An iPod isn’t about an iJob as much as it is about iWelfare.

So while the Oracles of Silicon Valley get richer and richer, we get dumber and dumber. I'm insulted when Gates & Company get together to rub shoulders with other global billionaires so they can discuss how to give away a few billion to make sure the pearly gates open up to let them in.  Hey Bill, instead of giving away billions to an iCharity why not create jobs for a few million right here in America? You want a way into Heaven that's it.