Apple just reported the largest quarterly profit of any public company in history. $18 billion on sales of $74.6 billion.
Apple has a current market capitalization of $635,713,000,000, making it the largest company in the world by market cap. If Apple's market cap was expressed as the gross domestic product of a nation, it would be No. 21 in the world, just behind Switzerland.
There is talk in the investor community that Apple might be the first company ever to hit a market cap of a trillion dollars.
The quarterly bonanza brought Apple's cash horde to an estimated $178 billion. One company. $178 billion in cash.
But what could one do if instead of admiring this huge sum of money, one decided to put it to a socially valuable use?
$178 billion could pay the difference between minimum wage and $15.00/hour for every person in America making the minimum wage or less. And it could do it for more than three years.
$178 billion could fund more than four million jobs paying a wage equal to the U.S. median household income of $43,800/year. Or 5.7 million jobs paying $15.00/hour.
$178 billion could provide a school lunch for every child in an American K-12 public school for nine years. Nobody gets turned away.
$178 billion could cover most of the estimated $200 billion cost of a nationwide infrastructure of hydrogen fueling stations allowing people to switch to fuel-cell-powered vehicles that only emit water. No greenhouse gas emissions.
$178 billion could pay for a manned mission to Mars.
$178 billion could fund an explosion in biomedical research. Private groups and government agencies spent about $119 billion on biomedical research in 2012.
Or it could just sit there.