Slashdot Mirror
The Forbidden City of Terry Gou
ElvaWSJ writes "Hon Hai churns out iPhones and Wiis, and provides a window into China's secretive world of outsourcing and manufacturing. With a work force of some 270,000 — about as big as the population of Newark, N.J. — the factory is a bustling testament to the ambition of Hon Hai's founder, Terry Gou. In an era when manufacturing has been defined by outsourcing, no one has done more to shift global electronics production to China. Little noticed by the wider world, Mr. Gou has turned his company into China's biggest exporter and the world's biggest contract manufacturer of electronics."
Can I roam amongst the endless rows of bins filled with our disposable electronic baubles? Please?
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Now that Rupert Murdoch owns the WSJ, I would have expected headlines more in line with, say, the New York post.... you know, like....
Don't have a Gou, man!
Holy Gou!
Gouabunga!
Pass Gou, collect $200 (billion)
Is that to Gou?
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
I really do wish that buying electronics wouldn't mean supporting companies whose workers have to live in slum conditions.
Ok, humanitarian perspective aside. Those workers are now able to provide a their families 2 square meals a day. If companies stop using them, then they go hungry, continue living in slums and you pay more for your beloved techno-gadgets. Right now they are better off than they were earlier and you are happier since you can have the privilege of using an iPod and listening to your choice of music on the go. See win-win scenario...
Something to consider here is that in many cases though the job conditions and pay looks terrible to /you/, the actual workers love it compared to what they had.
This is not to say that we nor they should be satisfied with their present lot in life, but rather to say that things are improving. Their economy is primitive by modern standards. It will grow, rapidly, and working conditions will improve - just like they did in our country.
The answer to helping these people advance is not to stop buying their products, which puts them right back where they were - with nothing. The answer is to continue to buy their products, which empowers them and gives them options.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
I guess you didn't read the article.
They get paid $0.60 an hour (a lot in China), but they also get to live rent free, their food is subsidized, and they have free health care. They also get overtime pay and actually do get raises. I wouldn't mind that deal, if I were just starting out of high school and needed to work.
Or you could consider that the US company could easily double their salary, reduce work week to, say, 60 hours and fix the most grievous safety hazards - all at the cost of cutting compensation of top executives by half. Just like we are prosecuting ordinary citizens for patronizing child prostitutes in Thailand, we should start going after companies (and their CEOs) that break US labor laws abroad. 5-7 bucks minimum wage per hour is not to expensive for a company, will help 3rd world countries stand up on their feet rather than being cheap slaves and will give US workers at least a slight chance to compete for jobs.
I've been teaching myself Mandarin Chinese for 6 months now. Some reasons why you should pick it up:
- It's way easier than Westerners make it out to be...similar sentence structure to English, and the verbs stay the same between different tenses. No conjugations, declinations, etc. In many regards it's much easier than "Romance" languages.
- You will be able to communicate with a quarter of the world's population.
- Though there are 13 different dialects of spoken Chinese, they all share the same writing system. You get to read and write 12 additional languages for free. Japanese uses many Chinese characters, too.
- Because it's so hyped as the world's most difficult language, your Western colleagues and employers will think you're a freakin genius. Imagine having "Fluent in Chinese" on your resume?
- Future study in languages more closely related to English will become comparatively easy. You'd be surprised how much French, Spanish, and German you already unknowingly speak on a daily basis.
- It's utterly fascinating to learn, especially the characters.
- If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
If you want to get the hang of Mandarin Chinese quickly, Pimsleur is hands down the absolute best.