Aren't the commenters here making the same errors in judgment?
In reality it is not two wrongs, its only the other commenters who are judging what is happening in China and not FR who is there and is more able to give a better perspective than those of us here in the US or outside of China.
Admittedly FR does come off a little harsh though.
see
Quote:
Originally Posted by yvo84
Thank you FreeRange, what you wrote needed to be said.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rabbit_Coach
Hi FreeRange, I am not american (just to have it mentioned) and I truly appreciate your rather insightful comment, although, I would say that you bring it on a little too hard. Of course I have the feeling myself, that many US- citizens don't really understand the concept, if shipping east or west, that they will find other landmasses than america.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
Watch it. You're making way too much sense for some of the folks here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by benice
Good post. AI is better when people bring new perspectives like this rather than having never visited or really taken the time to understand other places. It seems easier for people to just hit the keyboard but it's no substitute to being there.
Just look at the annual wages rises in China and it's incredible how positive this must be for people's lives there, supporting urbanization and other changes and yet things like that are almost never reported in the main news channels.
response to nht:
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
Have you traveled to the Appalachians? To the inner cities in a large US city? Heck, Detroit?
Steve Jobs defends using this sweatshop to line his pockets. He should be ashamed. How would he like to work there? Why doesn't Apple just admit they use this place because it's cheap and it's how business is done in America.
You're absolutely right. Please, please... protest against all things Apple by canceling your AI account, never buy (but salivate at) Apple products again, turn around and walk away. Don't look back. Please, do it now while it's still fresh in your mind.
Trust me, we'll all be right behind you. I'm sure the mass exodus will make Apple, along with all the other tech-companies think that manufacture in China think twice!
- If American companies did not export jobs, we'd be accused of living off of the world. At least we're "distributing the wealth", if only a bit.
- If American companies automated the factories, whether here or in China, that would make things far worse for workers who would have absolutely no jobs.
- American companies do export jobs and it's killed the economy for American workers. Those who think those jobs will come back some day are deluding themselves. Factory type jobs are not coming back to the U.S. What will happen is that as more and more Chinese workers demand higher wages than the 75 cents an hour they're currently making, is that eventually, those jobs will move to India and Africa.
- If Apple (and companies like Apple) moved those jobs back to where they've manufactured in the past: Ireland or the U.S., prices would have to rise substantially. Want to pay $5K for a MacBook Pro instead of $2.2K? I didn't think so. People already think Apple is ripping them off.
- From what I've seen, these factories are nothing like the sweatshops of the past. They are air-conditioned and have extensive facilities. The biggest problems facing the workers is that they have to stand for their entire shift and they're not permitted to talk during their shifts. These are also very young workers who are completely isolated from their families. But I believe this will improve over time. We have to keep the pressure on Apple and companies like Apple to continuously improve the lives of their employees. I believe that kind of pressure works quite well.
- In an ideal world, companies would manufacture their products in the markets in which they serve. This way, the communities that benefit Apple by buying their products would benefit in turn by receiving jobs. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way and it probably never again will.
Steve Jobs defends using this sweatshop to line his pockets. He should be ashamed. How would he like to work there? Why doesn't Apple just admit they use this place because it's cheap and it's how business is done in America.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AjitMD
Who are they kidding? It is a sweat shop! It is a shame that an innovative company like Apple does not want to make the effort to automate the assembly process so that their products do not have to be made by slave labor. In the end, automated production has always been cheaper than slave labor... as most industries learnt after the Civil War.
Another issue are the tax laws. China only taxes 20% (or less) for corporate tax. The US corporate tax is 40% at least. Apple has shield about 50% of its cash flow via transfer pricing... WTO helps too. The average person has to pay much higher taxes. About time they fixed this issue and brought jobs home.
The government should actually encourage domestic manufacturing via tax laws and tariffs. Dump WTO and NAFTA.
This is absolutely ridiculous talk. You guys don't know squat about what you're talking about.
On the scale between sweatshop and luxury resort, the Foxconn plant is probably closer to the luxury resort end than any other place in China. It's not a sweatshop. It's demonstrably true that this is so. Apple has shown this time and time again. Cameras have gone in, people have investigated, and no proof of this assertion that it's some kind of horrible sweatshop has ever been found.
It's a factory. More or less the same as any American Factory, only cleaner, and with better working conditions on on average. The people that work there get low wages by our standards, but (and here is the important bit), but actually rather good by their own standards. This is why there were *fewer* suicides on average at Foxconn last year than at the real "sweatshops." There have also been investigations of the conditions at the factory with no insanely major problems found and a few recommendations like this one, which they are actually trying to follow. They should be applauded for being one of the few Chinese factories that's at least trying to do better by their workers.
If anyone bothered to research it a bit, you'd find that the most likely main reason for the suicides was removed right after the last suicide anyway. They were paying the families a giant packet of money when one of the workers dived off the top floor! It has nothing to do with the workers being maltreated, and everything to do with the culture, and the standards of living in China in general.
Yet another China panic by the granola-swilling trustafarians and anti-insutrialist scions of American industry and privilege. Nothing new to see here. The more scandalous part is that China is pegging their currency too low, which means Apple probably invested too much in China. But this is a natural consequence of China's currency manipulation.
So please, it would be better to keep your fingers off the keyboard when you truly don't know what you are talking about.
Ah, that would be Nirvana and it should apply to everyone here (me included).
I have been to China many times, although not within the last few years. I have had clients who make regular trips there and what they share in photos and impressions is quite fascinating.
I do shake my head in amazement sometimes as the incredible growth rates there in the conversion process from rural to urban living. I have heard it said repeatedly that, as of early 2006, China's expansion is equivalent to building an entire new city the size of Houston, TX each month, or San Francisco, CA every two weeks.
Such incredible growth must have its downsides, and I suspect the rape of the land and the pollution that follows must be equally dismal. But I am not there to see it.
True. It's like somebody judging the US just by living in NYC. You can't generalize about the rural south using just that experience.
He should have paid more attention in college and spent less time on the assembly line. too. It's "drivel," not "dribble."
First off , @kochak and @nht, I have been coming to China for almost 11 years now so I am well aware of what goes on in cities verses rural areas. In fact I spent several days last year on a reunion trip to a remote rural village with my family and 40 others as they went to honor the village where they stayed and worked the fields during the cultural revolution. Dirt poor. Open toilets. The whole lot. However, this is the same way these people have lived successfully for centuries, but there is no question that their lives continue to improve as the younger generation leaves and works in the cities while sending money home. The most modern building in the small village was the school where with pride they are giving their children and grand children better educations so that they can go out and prosper in the rising economy. The villagers aren't sitting around with their heads in their hands going "woe is me". They are gregarious and content, and happy that their children and their children's children are moving toward a better life.
Lastly Kolchack, in fact drivel is a derivative of dribble - and dribble is exactly what I meant, spewing drooling / slobbering nonsense.
Ah, that would be Nirvana and it should apply to everyone here (me included).
I have been to China many times, although not within the last few years. I have had clients who make regular trips there and what they share in photos and impressions is quite fascinating.
I do shake my head in amazement sometimes as the incredible growth rates there in the conversion process from rural to urban living. I have heard it said repeatedly that, as of early 2006, China's expansion is equivalent to building an entire new city the size of Houston, TX each month, or San Francisco, CA every two weeks.
Such incredible growth must have its downsides, and I suspect the rape of the land and the pollution that follows must be equally dismal. But I am not there to see it.
Your thoughts and impressions?
One of the most gripping takes ever on what actually has happened in the past few decades in this remarkable socio-political-economic transformation - arguably, the most remarkable in human history - is the book "China Inc.," by Ted Fishman (http://www.chinainc-book.com/news.html).
Some people bemoan the fact that we, as Westerners, are sometimes puzzled and confused. Our puzzlement and confusion are peanuts compared to what the Chinese people themselves feel, and what they've had to undergo.
F... Dirt poor. Open toilets. The whole lot. However, this is the same way these people have lived successfully for centuries, but there is no question that their lives continue to improve as the younger generation leaves and works in the cities while sending money home. The most modern building in the small village was the school where with pride they are giving their children and grand children better educations so that they can go out and prosper in the rising economy. The villagers aren't sitting around with their heads in their hands going "woe is me". They are gregarious and content, and happy that their children and their children's children are moving toward a better life.
You hit the nail on the head. They have a hunger for wealth-creation, a work-ethic, and a sense of national and community pride that is increasingly putting to shame countries like the US. I sometimes worry that we are becoming lazy, dumb, and whiny, and that one day, these guys are going to seriously kick our bu**s.
If it weren't for the ability to innovate that still keep us ahead (for now), we'd be heading south much quicker.
I do shake my head in amazement sometimes as the incredible growth rates there in the conversion process from rural to urban living. I have heard it said repeatedly that, as of early 2006, China's expansion is equivalent to building an entire new city the size of Houston, TX each month, or San Francisco, CA every two weeks.
Such incredible growth must have its downsides, and I suspect the rape of the land and the pollution that follows must be equally dismal. But I am not there to see it.
But that is overly cynical and simplistic, and misses the point about all the great things that are happening as well.
What you are pointing to would be like judging the US, for example, by the Gulf oil spill ('environmental issues'), Blagojevich et. al ('corruption'), or New Orleans/Katrina ('displacement').
Google "Kentucky Fried Movie" and "Detroit". BringYourOwnSenseOfHumor.
Quote:
Oh, and you should visit China too, some time. You might actually learn a couple of things.
Yes, you can automatically assume that those that disagree with your position on X have never ever been to X, understand X, and absolutely know nothing about X because they disagree with your position on X.
Especially if that position is that "'Mericans are ignorant" and the topic is about something overseas.
Hint: FreeRange having a chinese wife and visiting China is insufficient to call everyone else ignorant about China and conditions at Foxconn.
Which is a Taiwanese company and one of the pieces of cultural friction at the factory...and the Foxconn execs strike me to be the same kinda folks I met in Taiwan as a kid (highly placed officials). Traditionalist and very hierarchical. Great folks if you're at the top of the food chain and they treat you as an equal. Maybe not so much if you aren't. The kind that in mainland Chinese (vaguely historical) soaps are not overly portrayed kindly. Overbearing, shifty, abusive, dithering and ultimately cause the family's downfall somehow...usually by collaborating with the Japanese in WWII.
The soaps are interesting...reflective of current Chinese cultural mores or mildly subtle propaganda? Either way, decent production values and you certainly aren't going to do a soap in China that the government doesn't like. Me, I get bored too easily to sit through 100 eps just to another version of "son/daughter meets and falls in love with inappropriate girl/boy, conflict and mayhem ensues, everybody dies in the end". <Cue montage of key scenes and sad music>.
Yes, 13 suicides, and 30 more attempts in that same 5 month time period. Google suicide cluster and the Foxconn employee demographics. Young, somewhat educated, single children from rural communities wondering why the hell they are mindlessly doing repetitive manufacturing for 15 hour days, seven days a week not for a single summer but for the foreseeable future.
You can do anything for a short period. When you're 22 and can't figure out a path to something better? These kids expected a better future than this...to someday figure out how to become lao ban and not just dai mao.
You want suck living conditions and long work hours join the Navy. But at least there the organization has a path for seaman to admiral.
Read this if you can. Giz or Engadet had a translation somewhere.
Oh c'mon, people. Knowing that there's blood on my iPhone's hands only makes it all the more precious to me.
I believe you were attempting to be humorous. Hard to tell these days in spite of the smiley face.
I you weren't, then I would suspect that a enormous blood diamond on someone's hand would be something you would admire or desire.
In my early thirties I wore a solid gold Rolex. At the time it was a sign of "success." When it was taken off my hand wrist at gunpoint in the Newark, NJ rental car lot, I still didn't get it. I just went out and replaced it with a solid gold and much slimmer Baume et Mercier.
Now I wear no jewelry at al. Nada. Zip. Not even a cheap watch. Somewhere along the line I grew a conscience. The way I now look at it? If I can afford to buy a Rolex, or whatever, then I can surely afford to help someone in need. Whenever I upgrade my systems, I look to my family first, but most of them are doing OK. More than likely I ask around to see who could really use a [insert whatever tech gear I am upgrading here]. If nothing comes to mind, then I donate it to a worthy charity. One that has a good track record and isn't top heavy with retired corporate types sucking down a large part of the proceeds, such as the United Way and others have done (at least in the past).
I love technology, and it has been a large part of my life since the days when colleges would not allow handheld calculators in upper level math classes (it was considered "cheating"). But I still do a Ben Franklin every time I upgrade or decide to add something here or there. The first is to determine need vs want, but I take it all the way down to "how does this impact whatever".
And yet I am grateful for all of this, because there have been times in my life where I had to wonder if I would live to see the sunrise (pick a war - doesn't matter which one - they're all the same), or which "1001 ways to cook Top Ramon" recipe was going to be breakfast, lunch or dinner - or the meal of the day.
But that's me. How you decide to interact with the Universe is up to you.
Ah yes, I see the "Ignorant Americans" meme has been trotted out once again by all the usual suspects. Let's keep in mind that, at minimum, only half the population might be considered somewhat ignorant, mkay??
Comments
Does it matter? Two wrongs don't make a right.
Aren't the commenters here making the same errors in judgment?
In reality it is not two wrongs, its only the other commenters who are judging what is happening in China and not FR who is there and is more able to give a better perspective than those of us here in the US or outside of China.
Admittedly FR does come off a little harsh though.
see
Thank you FreeRange, what you wrote needed to be said.
Hi FreeRange, I am not american (just to have it mentioned) and I truly appreciate your rather insightful comment, although, I would say that you bring it on a little too hard. Of course I have the feeling myself, that many US- citizens don't really understand the concept, if shipping east or west, that they will find other landmasses than america.
Watch it. You're making way too much sense for some of the folks here.
Good post. AI is better when people bring new perspectives like this rather than having never visited or really taken the time to understand other places. It seems easier for people to just hit the keyboard but it's no substitute to being there.
Just look at the annual wages rises in China and it's incredible how positive this must be for people's lives there, supporting urbanization and other changes and yet things like that are almost never reported in the main news channels.
response to nht:
Have you traveled to the Appalachians? To the inner cities in a large US city? Heck, Detroit?
Put food on their family? I know times are hard but no need to take it out on the family
Is george bush quote http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j76bLFbpuLQ
Steve Jobs defends using this sweatshop to line his pockets. He should be ashamed. How would he like to work there? Why doesn't Apple just admit they use this place because it's cheap and it's how business is done in America.
You're absolutely right. Please, please... protest against all things Apple by canceling your AI account, never buy (but salivate at) Apple products again, turn around and walk away. Don't look back. Please, do it now while it's still fresh in your mind.
Trust me, we'll all be right behind you. I'm sure the mass exodus will make Apple, along with all the other tech-companies think that manufacture in China think twice!
</sarcasm>
- If American companies did not export jobs, we'd be accused of living off of the world. At least we're "distributing the wealth", if only a bit.
- If American companies automated the factories, whether here or in China, that would make things far worse for workers who would have absolutely no jobs.
- American companies do export jobs and it's killed the economy for American workers. Those who think those jobs will come back some day are deluding themselves. Factory type jobs are not coming back to the U.S. What will happen is that as more and more Chinese workers demand higher wages than the 75 cents an hour they're currently making, is that eventually, those jobs will move to India and Africa.
- If Apple (and companies like Apple) moved those jobs back to where they've manufactured in the past: Ireland or the U.S., prices would have to rise substantially. Want to pay $5K for a MacBook Pro instead of $2.2K? I didn't think so. People already think Apple is ripping them off.
- From what I've seen, these factories are nothing like the sweatshops of the past. They are air-conditioned and have extensive facilities. The biggest problems facing the workers is that they have to stand for their entire shift and they're not permitted to talk during their shifts. These are also very young workers who are completely isolated from their families. But I believe this will improve over time. We have to keep the pressure on Apple and companies like Apple to continuously improve the lives of their employees. I believe that kind of pressure works quite well.
- In an ideal world, companies would manufacture their products in the markets in which they serve. This way, the communities that benefit Apple by buying their products would benefit in turn by receiving jobs. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way and it probably never again will.
The suicide rate at foxconn is lower than the average in the US and china. What's the problem then? It's 13 in 400,000
How distributed are those 13 across departments?
Obviously you have no clue.
Obviously your sarcasm meter is broken...unless you think it is also possible to walk uphill both ways...
Have you traveled to the Appalachians? To the inner cities in a large US city? Heck, Detroit?
Yes to both. Well not Detroit specifically.
No! No, not Detroit! No! No, please! Anything but that! No! No!
Yes to both. Well not Detroit specifically.
No! No, not Detroit! No! No, please! Anything but that! No! No!
You should. Oh, and you should visit China too, some time. You might actually learn a couple of things.
Steve Jobs defends using this sweatshop to line his pockets. He should be ashamed. How would he like to work there? Why doesn't Apple just admit they use this place because it's cheap and it's how business is done in America.
Who are they kidding? It is a sweat shop! It is a shame that an innovative company like Apple does not want to make the effort to automate the assembly process so that their products do not have to be made by slave labor. In the end, automated production has always been cheaper than slave labor... as most industries learnt after the Civil War.
Another issue are the tax laws. China only taxes 20% (or less) for corporate tax. The US corporate tax is 40% at least. Apple has shield about 50% of its cash flow via transfer pricing... WTO helps too. The average person has to pay much higher taxes. About time they fixed this issue and brought jobs home.
The government should actually encourage domestic manufacturing via tax laws and tariffs. Dump WTO and NAFTA.
This is absolutely ridiculous talk. You guys don't know squat about what you're talking about.
On the scale between sweatshop and luxury resort, the Foxconn plant is probably closer to the luxury resort end than any other place in China. It's not a sweatshop. It's demonstrably true that this is so. Apple has shown this time and time again. Cameras have gone in, people have investigated, and no proof of this assertion that it's some kind of horrible sweatshop has ever been found.
It's a factory. More or less the same as any American Factory, only cleaner, and with better working conditions on on average. The people that work there get low wages by our standards, but (and here is the important bit), but actually rather good by their own standards. This is why there were *fewer* suicides on average at Foxconn last year than at the real "sweatshops." There have also been investigations of the conditions at the factory with no insanely major problems found and a few recommendations like this one, which they are actually trying to follow. They should be applauded for being one of the few Chinese factories that's at least trying to do better by their workers.
If anyone bothered to research it a bit, you'd find that the most likely main reason for the suicides was removed right after the last suicide anyway. They were paying the families a giant packet of money when one of the workers dived off the top floor! It has nothing to do with the workers being maltreated, and everything to do with the culture, and the standards of living in China in general.
So please, it would be better to keep your fingers off the keyboard when you truly don't know what you are talking about.
Ah, that would be Nirvana and it should apply to everyone here (me included).
I have been to China many times, although not within the last few years. I have had clients who make regular trips there and what they share in photos and impressions is quite fascinating.
I do shake my head in amazement sometimes as the incredible growth rates there in the conversion process from rural to urban living. I have heard it said repeatedly that, as of early 2006, China's expansion is equivalent to building an entire new city the size of Houston, TX each month, or San Francisco, CA every two weeks.
Such incredible growth must have its downsides, and I suspect the rape of the land and the pollution that follows must be equally dismal. But I am not there to see it.
Your thoughts and impressions?
True. It's like somebody judging the US just by living in NYC. You can't generalize about the rural south using just that experience.
He should have paid more attention in college and spent less time on the assembly line. too. It's "drivel," not "dribble."
First off , @kochak and @nht, I have been coming to China for almost 11 years now so I am well aware of what goes on in cities verses rural areas. In fact I spent several days last year on a reunion trip to a remote rural village with my family and 40 others as they went to honor the village where they stayed and worked the fields during the cultural revolution. Dirt poor. Open toilets. The whole lot. However, this is the same way these people have lived successfully for centuries, but there is no question that their lives continue to improve as the younger generation leaves and works in the cities while sending money home. The most modern building in the small village was the school where with pride they are giving their children and grand children better educations so that they can go out and prosper in the rising economy. The villagers aren't sitting around with their heads in their hands going "woe is me". They are gregarious and content, and happy that their children and their children's children are moving toward a better life.
Lastly Kolchack, in fact drivel is a derivative of dribble - and dribble is exactly what I meant, spewing drooling / slobbering nonsense.
Ah, that would be Nirvana and it should apply to everyone here (me included).
I have been to China many times, although not within the last few years. I have had clients who make regular trips there and what they share in photos and impressions is quite fascinating.
I do shake my head in amazement sometimes as the incredible growth rates there in the conversion process from rural to urban living. I have heard it said repeatedly that, as of early 2006, China's expansion is equivalent to building an entire new city the size of Houston, TX each month, or San Francisco, CA every two weeks.
Such incredible growth must have its downsides, and I suspect the rape of the land and the pollution that follows must be equally dismal. But I am not there to see it.
Your thoughts and impressions?
One of the most gripping takes ever on what actually has happened in the past few decades in this remarkable socio-political-economic transformation - arguably, the most remarkable in human history - is the book "China Inc.," by Ted Fishman (http://www.chinainc-book.com/news.html).
Some people bemoan the fact that we, as Westerners, are sometimes puzzled and confused. Our puzzlement and confusion are peanuts compared to what the Chinese people themselves feel, and what they've had to undergo.
F... Dirt poor. Open toilets. The whole lot. However, this is the same way these people have lived successfully for centuries, but there is no question that their lives continue to improve as the younger generation leaves and works in the cities while sending money home. The most modern building in the small village was the school where with pride they are giving their children and grand children better educations so that they can go out and prosper in the rising economy. The villagers aren't sitting around with their heads in their hands going "woe is me". They are gregarious and content, and happy that their children and their children's children are moving toward a better life.
You hit the nail on the head. They have a hunger for wealth-creation, a work-ethic, and a sense of national and community pride that is increasingly putting to shame countries like the US. I sometimes worry that we are becoming lazy, dumb, and whiny, and that one day, these guys are going to seriously kick our bu**s.
If it weren't for the ability to innovate that still keep us ahead (for now), we'd be heading south much quicker.
I do shake my head in amazement sometimes as the incredible growth rates there in the conversion process from rural to urban living. I have heard it said repeatedly that, as of early 2006, China's expansion is equivalent to building an entire new city the size of Houston, TX each month, or San Francisco, CA every two weeks.
Such incredible growth must have its downsides, and I suspect the rape of the land and the pollution that follows must be equally dismal. But I am not there to see it.
Your thoughts and impressions?
Environmental Issues facing China
http://www.focusire.com/archives/483.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...A_GRAPHIC.html
http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_...roblems_china/
Corruption in China
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/pub...=view&id=19628
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10595981
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8593069.stm
Displacement of Villagers
http://wn.com/Homeless_Displaced_in_...out_a_Village_
http://apmrn.anu.edu.au/conferences/....Tan%20Guo.pdf
Environmental Issues facing China
.....
Corruption in China
.....
Displacement of Villagers
.....
Of course those are issues - and nontrivial ones.
But that is overly cynical and simplistic, and misses the point about all the great things that are happening as well.
What you are pointing to would be like judging the US, for example, by the Gulf oil spill ('environmental issues'), Blagojevich et. al ('corruption'), or New Orleans/Katrina ('displacement').
You should.
Google "Kentucky Fried Movie" and "Detroit". BringYourOwnSenseOfHumor.
Oh, and you should visit China too, some time. You might actually learn a couple of things.
Yes, you can automatically assume that those that disagree with your position on X have never ever been to X, understand X, and absolutely know nothing about X because they disagree with your position on X.
Especially if that position is that "'Mericans are ignorant" and the topic is about something overseas.
Hint: FreeRange having a chinese wife and visiting China is insufficient to call everyone else ignorant about China and conditions at Foxconn.
Which is a Taiwanese company and one of the pieces of cultural friction at the factory...and the Foxconn execs strike me to be the same kinda folks I met in Taiwan as a kid (highly placed officials). Traditionalist and very hierarchical. Great folks if you're at the top of the food chain and they treat you as an equal. Maybe not so much if you aren't. The kind that in mainland Chinese (vaguely historical) soaps are not overly portrayed kindly. Overbearing, shifty, abusive, dithering and ultimately cause the family's downfall somehow...usually by collaborating with the Japanese in WWII.
The soaps are interesting...reflective of current Chinese cultural mores or mildly subtle propaganda? Either way, decent production values and you certainly aren't going to do a soap in China that the government doesn't like. Me, I get bored too easily to sit through 100 eps just to another version of "son/daughter meets and falls in love with inappropriate girl/boy, conflict and mayhem ensues, everybody dies in the end". <Cue montage of key scenes and sad music>.
Yes, 13 suicides, and 30 more attempts in that same 5 month time period. Google suicide cluster and the Foxconn employee demographics. Young, somewhat educated, single children from rural communities wondering why the hell they are mindlessly doing repetitive manufacturing for 15 hour days, seven days a week not for a single summer but for the foreseeable future.
You can do anything for a short period. When you're 22 and can't figure out a path to something better? These kids expected a better future than this...to someday figure out how to become lao ban and not just dai mao.
You want suck living conditions and long work hours join the Navy. But at least there the organization has a path for seaman to admiral.
Read this if you can. Giz or Engadet had a translation somewhere.
http://www.infzm.com/content/44881
Heck, it even made CCTV news...probably because it was a taiwanese company.
Oh c'mon, people. Knowing that there's blood on my iPhone's hands only makes it all the more precious to me.
I believe you were attempting to be humorous. Hard to tell these days in spite of the smiley face.
I you weren't, then I would suspect that a enormous blood diamond on someone's hand would be something you would admire or desire.
In my early thirties I wore a solid gold Rolex. At the time it was a sign of "success." When it was taken off my hand wrist at gunpoint in the Newark, NJ rental car lot, I still didn't get it. I just went out and replaced it with a solid gold and much slimmer Baume et Mercier.
Now I wear no jewelry at al. Nada. Zip. Not even a cheap watch. Somewhere along the line I grew a conscience. The way I now look at it? If I can afford to buy a Rolex, or whatever, then I can surely afford to help someone in need. Whenever I upgrade my systems, I look to my family first, but most of them are doing OK. More than likely I ask around to see who could really use a [insert whatever tech gear I am upgrading here]. If nothing comes to mind, then I donate it to a worthy charity. One that has a good track record and isn't top heavy with retired corporate types sucking down a large part of the proceeds, such as the United Way and others have done (at least in the past).
I love technology, and it has been a large part of my life since the days when colleges would not allow handheld calculators in upper level math classes (it was considered "cheating"). But I still do a Ben Franklin every time I upgrade or decide to add something here or there. The first is to determine need vs want, but I take it all the way down to "how does this impact whatever".
And yet I am grateful for all of this, because there have been times in my life where I had to wonder if I would live to see the sunrise (pick a war - doesn't matter which one - they're all the same), or which "1001 ways to cook Top Ramon" recipe was going to be breakfast, lunch or dinner - or the meal of the day.
But that's me. How you decide to interact with the Universe is up to you.