It’s hard to imagine the Apple I worked for in 1996-1999 is this Apple…

Let’s face it: Apple is rich. So rich it could send a crowd of people to the moon to build a luxury hotel and hang out there for a few years. Here’s what else it could do, according to our friends at The Joy of Tech.

It’s not surprising Apple is so deeply awash in cash, especially after its spectacular first-quarter earnings announced this week. You can see the details of Apple’s unbelievable numbers here, but will give you a highlight: the company’s revenues for the quarter were higher than its total revenues for all of fiscal 2009.

Apple’s so rich, it could give each of its employees a check for $6,622,516. The company’s worth more than $400 billion. Here’s more about Apple’s riches.

If you had $100 billion (or $97.7 billion in cash reserves, to be exact), what would you do with it?

Source: What Apple Could Do With Its $100 Billion Cash Hoard [COMIC]

Yet in Steve Jobs epic biography it says:

This ability to focus saved Apple. In his first year back, Jobs laid off more than three thousand people, which salvaged the company’s balance sheet. For the fiscal year that ended when Jobs became interim CEO in September 1997, Apple lost $1.04 billion. “We were less than ninety days from being insolvent,” he recalled. At the January 1998 San Francisco Macworld, Jobs took the stage where Amelio had bombed a year earlier. He sported a full beard and a leather jacket as he touted the new product strategy. And for the first time he ended the presentation with a phrase that he would make his signature coda: “Oh, and one more thing . . .” This time the “one more thing” was “Think Profit.” When he said those words, the crowd erupted in applause. After two years of staggering losses, Apple had enjoyed a profitable quarter, making $45 million. For the full fiscal year of 1998, it would turn in a $309 million profit. Jobs was back, and so was Apple.

Isaacson, Walter (2011-10-24). Steve Jobs (p. 339). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

I was laid off by Apple not once, but twice – the first time in this round. Both times my wife was 8 months pregnant. But I came back because I was changing the world one computer at a time. And I got laid off again…

Lately, the poor working conditions at Foxconn have come to light again and it’s a sad story indeed. However, if it hadn’t been for the Apple employees of my era none of this would be here. None of it. Make my check out to e1evation, llc…