Jobs being a skilled CEO isn’t really the concern here, its the strange Jesus Complex people build around him. As it stands, Apple hasn’t bettered the world to such a degree that he deserves cult-like admiration. He did a good job. Mention it and move on. He stepped down, what, a couple of months ago? Maybe this forum, that gets a lot of hits, should focus its energies on more than his one guy. For instance, when Dave Thomas of Wendy’s fame, which is a great free market success story, died, not so much as a single word. But an executive of a niche computer company steps down, months of love ins. It sends a bad message, one that says copy Apple, its OK to be fourth place because everyone hates the winner. That all you need to succeed is a huge patent portfolio and charity of those wealthier than you.

The difference is easy to point out: without the innovators, the thinkers or those with imagination who operate through voluntary transactions, I wouldn’t have the goods that improve my quality of life. Steve Wozniak designed and built the first, best personal computer, the Apple. Steve Jobs is the one who had the vision that delivered it to living rooms, cubicles and classrooms, and that was his genius, to see a technology and visualize the best way to get it to the consumer, whether by brokering deals or driving his engineers. So, saying “Steve Jobs gave me my Mac,” is accurate, because without him, my Mac would never have arrived on my desk, regardless of whether I had the funds to buy it or not.

Let’s not forget also, that Jobs and Apple, in contrast to Reagan and Gore, didn’t use money taken by force (or force itself) to bring us the goods and services he offered.