Apple$$s CEO Tim Cook made headlines in December $2012$ when he announced that the company would make a $$100$ million investment to make Macs in the United States. Although many lauded the decision as a major contribution to the $$made in America$$ movement, others were less than impressed, calling the decision a $$PR stunt$$ or simply just a $$PR initiative,$$ inferring that the Apple decision didn$$t have much substance.

The cynics pointed out that Apple could have done more because it was sitting on more than $$120$ billion in cash reserves and that the $$100$ million investment was only $1$ percent of Apple$$s annual $$10$ billion that it spends on capital expenditures. Others say the rationale for the decision was primarily a public relations decision to get some favorable press to counteract criticism by human rights groups about the safety incidents and high working hours in Chinese factories where the vast majority of its products are assembled. San Jose Mercury News columnist Mike Cassidy, who covers Silicon Valley, was more forgiving. He wrote, $$OK$,$ maybe it takes a little zip out of the Apple$-$comes$-$to$-$America story. But why dwell on the negative? A journey of $1,000$ miles$$or from Shenzhen to the United States, for that matter, starts with a first step.$$

Question:

What do you think? Was Apple$$s decision only a $$PR stunt$$ without much substance or a decision by a socially responsible corporation to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States?