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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."
...maybe they were just aware that no-one believes British tabloids.
...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/
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.