[supervillain]

A suggestion for Apple.

1. Apple is worth $2.44 trillion USD; pay off the whole $240 billion USD debt owed by the Philippines.

2. Establish Apple HQ facilities in the Philippines and employ the vast majority of the country's talented software engineers there.

3. Take advantage of the cheap labour, low costs, and high standard of living to ride the wave of unending profit.

This is how you turn things around and switch the lightbulb.

[paxys]

They can set up a facility and employ people in a country without paying off their debt. What exactly does Philippines have to offer that others don't?

[supervillain]

If the Philippine debt is repaid, you'll have established the new Silicon Valley, complete with a talent pool dominated by software engineers and a large number of blockchain and AI experts.

[danaris]

I think it would be a very bad move to do something like this right now, when the Philippines is still run by the close-enough-to-fascist-to-make-little-difference dictator Duterte. Just as one example of why doing anything that even appears to legitimize and support him (or anything that puts you or yours in his power) is a bad idea, his way of dealing with "the drug problem" is just to kill drug users outright. To the tune of tens of thousands.

I certainly feel for the people of the Philippines, and setting up a major Apple HQ there would likely improve their opportunities somewhat, but as long as Duterte or anyone like him is in charge there, there are just so many reasons not to make any significant commitments to the Philippines.

[endisneigh]

Apple already does (3) without (2) or (1). I expected a more interesting plan from a supervillain

[MrBuddyCasino]

takes huge bong hit this is how you turn things around and switch the lightbulb

[zffr]

> pay off the whole $240 billion USD debt owed by the Philippines.

Why do this?

[barbazoo]

It's a fun thought experiment, I'm wondering though, what problem would that solve?

[bergenty]

Terrible idea, the Philippines is not known for innovation.