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Idle: Four Injured In iPad Fight At Beijing Apple Store
fysdt writes "Four people were taken to hospital and a glass door smashed as a near-riot broke out at Beijing's top Apple store among crowds rushing to snap up the popular iPad 2 tablet computer, state press said Sunday. Angry consumers began rushing the store on Saturday afternoon after a 'foreign' Apple employee allegedly stepped into the crowd to push and beat people suspected of queue jumping, the Beijing News said."
Coming to an Apple store near you!
You can't buy that kind of publicity... Jobs is appeased.. for now.
Product in short supply. Crowds rushing to get shiny product and trampling others in the process. Poorly trained employees.
It's just like Black Friday at Walmart.
"Thbbft!" - Bill the Cat
I just read this article on China Daily this morning about the mad rush for iPad 2s' today, saw a clip of this story on CCTV News half an hour ago, then come to read Slashdot only to find out that this story is the top of the front page. I've been reading Slashdot since 1997, and I'm used to stories being submitted days, weeks, months, and sometimes years after the fact. Apple fans going crazy for new products is too trite for news nowadays, but Slashdot being current is a rather creepy occurrence... I'm not sure whether to be pleased or to expect Duke Nukem Forever to be released next...
A more interesting article from the site is the wearable cat ears that move to your expressions. How long before all of the Cosplay girls start adopting these?
Damnit, misleading title. When you say "Pillow Fight" it means something specific, and when you say "iPad Fight" my imagination cheerfully brings me a fantastic mental image.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
If capitalism were a success, we'd all be working fewer hours and adults would be living significantly longer.
Proof? I could just as well claim "if socialism were a success we'd be building homes on Mars by now", but that wouldn't prove anything other than my own ignorance of socialism and martian home-building.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
That'll be $46,000, Mr. Jobs. Now Apple knows how iPhone owners feel. :-)
I think the perspective of the propaganda writer who fabricated this piece was probably that the iPad 2 is a continuation of the opium wars. Oh, terrible capitalism, forced on the innocent bosom of the Chinese people, who are clearly and totally represented by their beloved government which in no way whatsoever suppresses or manipulates its people!
Society needs the ability to call people out for this kind of counterproductive crap. Thanks for helping to set back Star Trek another hundred years, unnamed propaganda writer. You could be working against nationalist prejudice, and trying to unite humanity, but instead you have to look at life like a competition. I hope that some day a stock market crash is named after you and your ilk.
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I wasn't aware that China was granting work visas for people to work in retail. Sounds like bullshit to me.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This type of violence occurs at Filenes Basement at Downtown Crossing in Boston during the spring wedding dress sale, and for years the Boston Globe and Herald covered it as kind of a nod to the Filenes mystique. Then came Gang members shooting people over Nikes in LA. This is about crowd behavior, not the product, and publicity spin for the product is kind of 1990s. Move along, nothing to see here.
Gently reply
If you feel capitalism is such a failure, go live in a communist country.
Whats that, theyre all ghettos? Yea, theres a reason for that.
Capitalism makes people work hard, because they have a purpose and goal to achieve something they build or develop.
Under every regime from anarchism to fascism people can have "a purpose and goal to achieve something". If you're talking about the workers having control of the means of production, i.e. the productive having access to the resources they need to achieve their goals, that's precisely socialism. In capitalism, the person building/developing is usually not the owner of the results of the work.
On the other hand socialism says everyone gets their equal and fair share if they work or not.
No form of socialism has never said such a thing. 20th century socialism is worker control of the means of production. Marxist socialism is the stage before communism where everyone does his part and is rewarded according to his labour rather than according to his capital input.
You may be thinking of social democracy of the sort in Western European nations, but even that has no notion of "equal and fair share" - the welfare safety net just provides a minimum to enable people to pick themselves up, or to maintain people who are too disabled/sick to work. It also provides a level of assistance to lift people with certain conditions up to the level of someone without that condition.
Or perhaps you're thinking of Marxist communism, which also doesn't give people an "equal and fair share" - it gives to people according to their need. Just because Bob without no legs gets a wheelchair, it doesn't mean you get one.
What are you thinking of?
So tell me, why would anyone with a goal and purpose give give that to someone who is lazy, looter, or parasite. Not me.
Observing the outcome of elections in the UK and the US over the past decade, I'd say that rewarding rich, lazy, looting parasites appears to be the main goal of the citizens of those two countries.
Not the GP, but I can say unequivocally that no, that is definitely not what he is saying. He's saying that capitalism promises short working hours and lifespans considerably longer than our current 80+ years, as much as socialism promises us summer homes on Mars.
Capitalism promises (more or less) a functioning society that progresses more efficiently than socialism. If you want to show that capitalism doesn't work, then that's what you need to show.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
The USSR had a downturn?
Well, since it doesn't exist anymore...I would say that they kinda hit a rough patch.
China? Well, they're certainly the most successful nation on earth right now, if success is measured in actually producing rather than trading in invisibles.
China and the US both need each other. China would be in deep trouble if there weren't American's to buy what they make.
Most asian cultures would have a lot to teach white people about being racist. If you don't know this, then you don't know any asians.
People just don't line up in China, period! This Apple store incident does not come as a surprise to me.
I visited Shanghai two years ago and was waiting at the subway stop. I was the first waiting in line to get into the subway car. When the subway arrived, people behind me just rushed in, instead of waiting for the passengers in the car to exit. Needless to say, I was the first in line, and ended up not getting into the subway car. And Shanghai is suppose to be the most civilized city in China!
By contrast, when I was in Taiwan the same month, I also took the subway in Taipei. Everyone lined up according to the direction. They waited politely for passengers to get off, and entered the car one by one. People also yield their seats to elders or pregnant moms.
Having people camp out at Apple Store may be a good idea in other countries, but not in China. In China, people just would not patiently wait in line. They would try to cut the line whenever they could. They would elbow you or shove you out just to advance their queue.
I think what you saw is more general: it is big city behaviour, not unique to NYC or America. While it is worse in some countries, it is a general facet of the way our behaviour seems to be tweaked by high density urban living.
Well, if you consider life expectancy at birth, the US is tied in 36th place in the latest UN list with... Cuba. Hehe. Viva la capitalizacion!
Oh oh just like Japan in the '70s. Guess what happened 10 years later.
Of course, China and Japan already have much better process management (see esp. Japan on incremental improvement) than in US factories. Yet the US still stubbornly even refuses to play catch-up. All those MBAs must know what they're talking about, right?
I assume you are either: 1. Being sarcastic. 2. Unable to speak Chinese and therefore ignorant of said racism. 3. Not perceived as 'foreign' by Chinese people and therefore unaware of it.
you forgot 4. troll.
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All three of the ideas are stupid and do not work. Some committee decides how much of the "means of production" each worker/engineer/cleaning lady controls and gets to keep when they leave? And why would I want to keep the fruits of my labor? Unless I'm maybe a farmer they are useless to me and will have to be promptly exchanged for currency anyways. And the icing on the cake - another committee get to vote on my "needs". What a joke.
All of this has been implemented much better under Capitalism. Instead of questionable control of means of production one may own shares, instead of keeping useless fruits of you labour you get a salary which in general is proportional to your contribution (not perfect, CEOs, I know). And of course you are the one who decides what and how much you need, noone is gonna tell you you can't have two laptops until everyone else gets one.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
Some committee decides how much of the "means of production" each worker/engineer/cleaning lady controls and gets to keep when they leave?
No, no-one gets to keep the means of production when they leave, unless they're going home to work and no-one else needs the means. Recall the discussion earlier in the thread about the countries with the longest life expectancies as birth? A good number have state-owned healthcare facilities, with "some committee" deciding precisely the above (like the "some committee" of managers or management consultants which decide the same in private firms, except their interest is enough short-term profit to get a bonus before they leave).
You should join us, America! You're humans just like us, and have a right to a dignified, healthy life.
And why would I want to keep the fruits of my labor? Unless I'm maybe a farmer
Yeah. Open source really worked out bad. And why should those Chinese labourers who make millions of iPhones a year get one for themselves? It was the shareholder back in the US who did the work and he deserves the bonus. And if the labourer dare campaign for better wages instead, we throw him in jail. We don't have to feel guilty about countries we contract out to when they deny freedom of speech because rights aren't inalienable when their denial gives you a competitive advantage. That's capitalism!
Of course, the labourer doesn't have to keep physical items. But he receives value for their worth, rather than the minimum his employer is able to pay to retain him. When the means of production belong to the workers, of course, there is no profit-making "employer" to exploit you.
another committee get to vote on my "needs"
A very large committee voted on your right to not be murdered. Continue cursing the voter and perhaps he'll vote that right away from you: let it be a need you decide for yourself and we'll see how well you do at defending it.
[under capitalism] of course you are the one who decides what and how much you need
Really? You get to choose your own wages? And you get to just walk into a store and take whatever you feel you need? This isn't the capitalism I know.
noone is gonna tell you you can't have two laptops until everyone else gets one
That's the second time I've seen that example in as many days. Do people really define quality of life / freedom / something important by how many laptops they can get?
The social contract goes that you accept that society will take more than you want from you, and in return it protects you from being pillaged and killed (especially likely if you hoard).
Only your sense of entitlement perceives it as a threat, because you believe you are entitled to protection. But the default is that you get no protection at all.
Stalin brought more progress in shorter time to his nation than any leader throughout the twentieth century
Wow. Just... wow.
You've raised trolling to a whole new level of play. Even the East German judge seems impressed.
It's not ordinary consumers who are buying these things. It's speculative scalpers.
There's a guy at the back exit of the store who has a stack of iPads. One of his friends (or possibly a student he's hired for a rumoured ~$2/hour) lines up at the front, goes in, buys two iPads, and drops it to the guy at the back who adds it to his pile. At about 1pm on Friday (first day of sale) I estimate this guy had at least 30 stacked up in two neat piles. His friends/hires then go back to the front, queue up again, buys another two and drops them to him at the back door.
It's not just one guy, however, there are dozens of people around Sanlitun Village (the shopping centre in Beijing that houses the Apple store) with stacks of iPads and white iPhones trying to flog them off at a higher price than the Apple Store. They've probably got their stock in the way that I've described above; and of course they only have a market if either a) Apple is out of stock or b) Noone can get into the Apple Store.
So the reason for all the queuing is not that the iPad2 is ridiculously popular with ordinary consumers; it's that it's ridiculously popular with scalpers who are trying to buy up all the stock, prevent people from buying it from Apple, and make people buy it from them instead at an inflated price.
http://yfrog.com/gy4b8xaj --Scalpers hoard stock for sale
http://yfrog.com/gzisfwbj --Scalper selling stock
Not all Asians are Chinese. Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese etc. have radically different cultures.