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Repercussions of Reporting on Apple 'Sweatshops'
PRC Banker writes "Following the media attention over Apple using 'sweatshop' tactics to manufacture iPods, facts were disseminated making things seem not as bad as first reported. However, recent developments suggest that 'Apple Computer's iPod supplier FoxConn has decided to sue the media for mis-reporting on working conditions in their factories. Rather than sue the British tabloids, FoxConn sues a Shanghai newspaper. The reporter has a translated version of his personal experience and thoughts.' Powerful Chinese company threatens local media. Worrying indeed, especially given this company's track record. The president of Foxconn is the richest man in Taiwan, and the company has attempted to use coercion in the past."
It's Apple-related, so it's ok.
Foxconn is also Dell's largest supplier of system components. The only thing foxconn doesn't make that is in a Dell business system is the plastics and chassis (and even then, most are Foxconn)
Does this mean that corporate america is funding political terrorists?
Your ignorance is infinitely greater than you realize.
And we all know that Microsoft has never ever screwed people over.
Er, who mentioned Microsoft? I guess your point is that if one can find someone worse than Apple, then Apple must be all right.
But since you bring up Microsoft, at least MS doesn't sue people left and right. At least MS doesn't charge $129 for minor updates (note that updates for the last three years have been FREE). At least MS doesn't make bullshit claims in their advertising (e.g., "twice as fast"). At least MS and Bill Gates (separately) give away immense amounts to charity (Apple gives discounts to schools in order to cynically "lock them in" as future customers). MS is known as a wonderful company to work for. Apple is known as a sweatshop, where you're luck if you don't answer directly to Steve Jobs, who is known as a gigantic a-hole to anyone who's worked with him.
...maybe they were just aware that no-one believes British tabloids.
So mostly we benefit from these sweat shops. The low income have an opportunity to buy products. Everyone who has investment feels rich because companies can keep costs low, so the stock market isup and investors will buy more expensive things, like houses. People with houses feels better off than they are because they can leverage paper gains into real cash. The economy appears to be doing better than it is because in addition to the fake house cash, we also get loans from Asia so that we can afford to pay them for manufacturing in their swear shops.
But at the end of the day, it is the average persons desire for cheap stuff that drives the cycle. I wonder if Apple produced the 68K Powerbooks in sweatshops? I wonder if Dell could survive without sweatshops. Would we tolerate, would the american economy survive, the lack of sweat shops?
I certainly would want Apple to have a bit more dignity than say, Nike, but I don't hold my breath. As everyone says, Apples are too expensive, and the cost must come down. But think of this. I saw a documentary last year in which a european cell phone manufacturer audited their asian manufacturing facility. Overall it was not terrible. Many safety issues, but not unlike what one would see in the US. Most girls, cramped housing, but again not unlike the way young people live in the US. These workers were there earning a living and saving money, which, if you believe that a hard days work imbues dignity, could be a good thing. One interesting thing was that since the employees were living in company dorm, the company was officially much more responsible for their workers, like being liable if a girl got pregnant.
Which is simply to say that the simplifications made by most are simply useless. I believe we are in much more trouble than most will admit, and the solutions will require much broader adjustments in behavior, which will either be done voluntarily or by necessity. While much of this simplification is done to make it accessible to the common person, and the bias may often be unintentional, the fact that so often the blame lies elsewhere than the writer seem disingenuous.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
...and American?
Before you mod me flamebait please realize that no one here has attempted to define what a "sweatshop" is,
or how these jobs compare to others in the Chinese economy.
I own a company that manufactures in China. We pay well above average, and there is always (and when I say always I mean 24/7)
a line of people at the gate looking for work.
None of this changes the fact that most people on this board would call the factory a sweatshop, because the hours are long,
the pay is low by US Standards and the working conditions are below ours in America.
But we're not talking about the US. We're talking about the entire rest of the world which is poorer than we are.
Yes, we have a moral obligation to provide clean, safe working conditions. But we do not have an obligation to elevate those
we employ abroad to US standards of living. And to wealthy Americans (if you're reading this you are comparitively wealthy)
those standards would seem terrifying.
Right now you are sitting in front of a computer surrounded by the products of cheap (and arguably exploitative) labor. Everything you own. Everything
you've eaten today. Everything you're wearing.
By what amazing gift of self-denial do people here condemn the system which makes them so wealthy?
The difference between American capitalists and those who would condemn them that the latter make weak protestations as they consume with the same gusto.
Flame away kids.
During the 1950's everything was made in the US with labor unions and a strong middle class followed. That was true prosperity and nothing was too far out of the common man's reach besides luxuries items.
To me this proves that the excuse to exploit people is to make more money and is based on greed. THe middle class is suffering while the upper middle class is getting rich and the gap is widening. Gas prices and rent more than doubled in 3 or 4 years yet our salaries have not and more and more factories are closing and heading to China for cheap labor.
Money trickles back with demand side economics.
http://saveie6.com/
Why doesn't Apple just sell two ipods versions -- one made in "sweatshops" and one made by well-paid americans in the bay area.
Folks who don't want to support "sweatshops" can buy the "made in USA" version (for around $900 probably), and others can buy the $300 (sweatshop) version.
And they should make it visually easy to distinguish which version you have just by looking at it (just to keep us all honest).
You do understand that there is a fair trade market, right? That not everything you can buy is made thorugh terrible working conditions? Don't get me wrong, I know there are companies out there like American Apperel that claim "Sweatshop Free" yet still don't respect worker's rights (AA is notoriously anti-union, to the point of staging anti-union protests by forcing workers to pose for the media as being anti-union), but the fair trade industry does exist, and many of us relatively rich people do buy from them. Granted, America is slow to adopt ethical purchasing into our currently poor ethical boundaries, but we are making some progress.
And yes, it is hard to introduce worker's rights into an anti-worker environment. However, you don't have to have your shop in China. You could set up shop somewhere else, where the laws allow you to respect the workers. Don't blame the consumer when you haven't even tried everything you can to solve the problem.
Did you REALLY just say that?! Are you serious? Let's address the inaccuracies.
First, "updates" like Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger are not "minor". They are "major upgrades". They introduce new features. Jaguar introduced bayesian filtering, Quartz Extreme, system-wide accessible Address Book, Bonjour (né Rendezvous), iChat, Inkwell, CUPS, etc., etc. Panther introduced Exposé, Fast User Switching, FileVault, iChat video-conferencing, Font Book, system-wide faxing, etc., etc. Tiger introduced Jaguar, Spotlight, Automator, VoiceOver, RSS in Safari, etc., etc. Leopard is going to introduce Time Machine, Spaces, new versions of Front Row and Photo Booth, system-wide To Do service, etc., etc. Are you really calling these MINOR updates?
Let's see, in contrast, what are Microsoft's service packs? Pure bug fixes. No, the addition of a firewall and additional security aren't new features -- they're there because people were getting fed up with the viruses and worms that were (and still are) attacking Windows. That's bug fixing. Windows XP SP1 and SP2 are comparable to incremental updates like 10.4 --> 10.4.1, or 10.3.8 --> 10.3.9, not major updates like 10.3 --> 10.4 which Apple charges for.
Then you say that MS doesn't make bullshit claims in their advertising. That's a good one! Let's just take their latest "people_ready" advertising. If Windows were really "people_ready", then it wouldn't have all the viruses and trojans plaguing the platform.
Then you say, in an off-hand comment, that Apple gives discounts to schools to cynically "lock them in" as future customers. That's another good one! Microsoft doesn't offer any discounts to schools whatsoever? (Bullshit!) If you want to talk about cynical lock-ins, look at Microsoft's class-action settlements in California, where they attempted to foist Windows software on the claimants rather than giving them money. And that's not cynically locking people in? You've got a really short memory, it seems.
As for whether MS or Apple are great companies for which to work, I can't really comment on that because I've never worked for either. But I doubt you have either.
So let's tally up the points. 4 bullshit arguments. Oh.. *sniff* do you smell that? Oh, yes, I know that smell -- it's a Windows troll!