High Tech Misery In China

theodp writes "Think you've got a bad job? Think again. You could be making keyboards for IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo and HP at Meitai Plastic and Electronics, a Chinese hardware factory. Prompted by the release of High Tech Misery in China by a human-rights group, a self-regulating body set up by tech companies will conduct an audit of working conditions at the factory. In return for take-home pay of 41 cents per hour, workers reportedly sit on hard wooden stools for 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Overtime is mandatory, with workers being given on average two days off per month. While on the production line, workers are not allowed to raise their hands or heads, are given 1.1 seconds to snap each key into place, and are encouraged to 'actively monitor each other' to see if any company rules are being transgressed. They are also monitored by guards. Workers are fined if they break the rules, locked in the factory for four days per week, and sleep in crowded dormitories. Okay, it's not all bad news — they're hiring."

Comments

Re:Compared to doing what?

[schnikies79]

I would say subsistence farming is much better than 41 cents/hour in a factory.

A different side of the story

[adam1101]

From the perspective of a journalist who spend some time with some of these workers: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/book-qa-chinese-workers/

I think Americans - and many urban Chinese, too - tend to see the factory workers as passive victims, motivated by poverty and desperation. Spending time with these young women taught me the opposite: They are resourceful and ambitious, full of plans to improve their lot and change their fates, willing to challenge their bosses and quit their jobs for better ones, and willing to take night classes to improve themselves. When you ask these migrant workers why they came to the city, they will tell you that their families are poor, but they also talk about the opportunity and adventure of urban life. They may have very little power in our eyes, but in their own they are the leading actors in their own dramas and not victims of circumstance.

Re:Compared to doing what?

[sith]

Dunno about where this factory is, but everywhere I've been in China, 41 cents (3 yuan) doesn't buy you much...

Re:No surprises here

[Falconhell]

How incredibly naive you are.

The Austarlian banks have weathered the crisis without great trouble, no bailouts needed so far. Why? Because they were reregulated in the 90's, not allowed to make up silly investment viehicles that lead to disaster.

Hate to bring reality to your shiny libertarian ideals, but as you should well know reality has a liberal bias.

Good regulation would have prevented the problem as it did in Australia. No ammount of rationalization and false analogies you make will change that.

Honestly, I cannot believe you really think reducing regulation would magically fix the banking crisis. Like the bankers will suddenly become honest.

Jeezus!

Re:Compared to doing what?

[ucblockhead]

You need to realize that the improvement of working conditions in the West in the 19th and early 20th centuries wasn't some sort of natural outgrowth of industrialism. It came about because the people in those societies became appalled at the conditions and government stepped in and forced companies to improve these conditions. The 40 hour work week wasn't created by some natural economic change of events...it came about because the government forced it on companies.

Re:Well at MY place,

[bentcd]

We owe them a lot of money, and at any time they could call that debt in on us, and presumably (if they wanted to and probably could) ship us off to China to work in their factories

Presumably what they own is a ginormous quantity of US Treasury bonds. The way in which they could "call in" that debt is by putting them all out for sale on the market but this would depreciate their value to such an extent they would have to be idiots to actually do it. Sure, it would cause some trouble for the US but chances are it would hurt China about as much - they would rather hang on to them and sell them off gradually so they actually get paid something for them. As for debt the US needs to pay out in $$$ when it comes due, well, it's debt in dollars and the recently politicized Federal Reserve will surely be happy to print however many dollar bills are needed to pay off any debt the govt decides it needs to get rid of (perhaps there would even be an Inflation Czar). To call the US' situation wrt international debt "sweet" is a gross understatement. The difficult part isn't to service their debt, the difficult part is to do it in such a way that the USD remains the international currency of choice afterwards.