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Avoiding Sweatshop PC Components?
Jimmy asks: "Is there such a thing as a guilt-free PC or components? From what I've been reading, third world sweatshops are contracting just as much assembly work to the big-name hardware suppliers as the unscrupulous clothing/fashion industry. I'd love to have a PC which wasn't made off of the back of some underage girl working for pennies an hour. What about it? When is our new-groove techie conscience going to kick in?" Such concern is commendable, but it's not like Dell, Gateway or any other manufacturere advertise this fact in their Press Packets. How does one go about finding out such information and when you do, instead of just boycotting, why not go public?
From what I've heard about maquiladoras and free-trade zones, you'll probably have a hard time getting good information. And when you do get it, you'll have a hard time keeping it current.
The shops work on contract, with the product changing every few months. Overall, the clothing shops stick with clothing, and the electronics assemblers sticking w/ their area, but when orders fall off, or some semblance of human-rights monitoring gets started up, the shop will fold, and the owner will look for greener pastures. A new industry will open up under the old roof pretty quickly.
Worse still, I read recently about someone having developed a manufacturing facility that fits in a cargo container. Now the whole factory can pick up and head for where the wages are cheapest.
At current component price levels, it should be easy to pick out the ones that didn't come from sweatshops. They are the ones that'll cost almost an order of magnitude more than other similar components. Like it or not, large parts of our western affluence is built on their backs. It is only getting more difficult to find products that don't include that kind of exploitation in their production channel.
I'm willing to pay for good information.
In a related story, the IRS has recently ruled that the cost of Windows upgrades can NOT be deducted as a gambling loss.
I should give a disclaimer before I start. I spent 7 years kicking around China (including some time as a technical writer for a mainboard manufacturer in Taiwan). I hold well-meaning missionaries with fat bellies going in to "fix" developing countries in utter, complete disdain.
Most of the assembly for PC components is highly automated. I have seen people hand-solder SMT components... These were exploited senior engineers in the Taipei design center. These poor souls were so tired after working 10 hours a day that they could barely drag themselves to their new Toyotas and Nissans to go off to their houses in the suburbs of Taipei.
The rest is all done using SMT machinery. There's a tech monitoring the line for trouble, and there are people doing QC and stuffing boxes at the end of the line. It's pretty boring, but it's light work. Remember as well that the quality demands for electronics are considerably higher than for clothing. You can't train someone just off the farm to run an SMT line.
Making silicon chips is generally a pretty nasty business. You get exposed to lots of fun chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens. The silicon fabs have largely moved overseas for a reason. They're bad neighbors, and bad PR.
On the issue of sweatshops in general, I am largely in agreement with another poster. Labor unions, education, and time solve all problems. If any of you have grandparents old enough to remember when the world's largest developing economy was the United States, ask them about pay and working conditions.
In a complex, cross-dependent society, a lot of hands make everything you touch. Some of them are well-paid, skilled laborers, some have jobs you wouldn't want in a million years. If this bugs your conscience, do the right thing. Sell your gas-guzzling automobile, get out of San Francisco, or New York, or Seattle, or wherever you are now, move to Montana, and unplug. Create your own sustainable economy and be guilt-free.
Boycotting may work (as may unions), but do you want to take a cut in your standard of living? It's great when people say that they really want the quality of living in third world countries to improve, but I often wonder whether people are willing to take the cut in their quality of living in order to make it come true.
Think of it this way. You boycott, forcing the company in question to pay more for labour overseas, improving their quality of living. However, to do this they need to cover higher costs in the form of wages. They then pass on the additional costs to you, as you've clearly expressed that you do not approve of their current practices. So, prices have gone up. Now apply this across the board to all companies. Two things may happen. First, all companies apply this scenario and prices go up across the board. You now can't buy as much as you used to, making your standard of living decrease while their standard of living increases. You get a warm fuzzy feeling, but can't buy your DVD player.
Two, all companies but one decide to raise their prices due to market pressure. However, one company doesn't and is able to undercut all their competitors. A significant portion of the market would probably buy from them, simply because they're cheaper. So, other companies are forced to cut costs in order to effectively compete (or else go out of business). One way to cut costs is to move to where they can pay lower wages, taking you back to where you were in the first place.
Sweatshops are evil, but do you think the majority of western consumers (who have the money) would be willing to lower their standard of living to eliminate them? I may be cynical, but I think not. People really seem to love their DVD players, iPacs and other gadgets.
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
Have you recently visited an industrialized yet highly polarized third world nation? There is no shortage, I assure you. Without a workforce able to organize and collectively bargain, the fruits of their labor is concentrated in the hands of the priveleged few. This often acts in conjunction with reduced political power, which in turn contributes to the lack of funding for infrastructure that immediately effects these workers. That includes housing, transportation, health, and education. It's not hard to see how reduced bargaining power leads to a potential downward spiral in quality of living. The degree to which persons take an active role in their own well being (and the degree to which the powers that be react against them) directly affect what John Kenneth Galbraith once called "private affluence and public squalor."