[OP]
Member
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/bu...lass.html?_r=1
Hard to believe this is true...
I cannot believe a company that makes sooooo much money pays sooooo little for its labor.
America is truely blessed!!!
Since I have read this, every time I pick up my iPhone, I have a different perspective.
Be GLAD we are in America...
Member
Only when we demand a fairer playing field...........
Contributor
Joel, I think the correct sentence is "only when we're willing to pay for a fairer playing field".Originally Posted by Joel Goodman
In December I was commissioning a large UPS at one of our earth stations. It's a model we own a few of and it was made in different countries as follows
- original made in France
- next generation made in China
- next generation made in India
Why? Apparently the Chinese factory wage had risen to the equivalent of $1.00 per hour, India was $0.50 per hour.
South America may be next if India becomes too expensive.
Regards, Rod.
Member
Ahhh.... global economics at its best. We don't want to pay, and they want to make as much money as possible off of us before we're bled dry.
Last edited by Brian Effinger; 01-30-2012 at 11:19 PM. Reason: spelling
It’s only work if somebody makes you do it.
A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do.
Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side and it binds the universe together.
Member
Mike Daisy was recently given an entire episode on This American Life. Highly recommend giving that episode a listen if you get the chance.
This video is provides an insight into Foxconn, the factory that makes the iPhone and quite a fair bit of most every electronic device.
Measure twice, cut three times, start over. Repeat as necessary.
Member
Don't forget about the EPA and miles of red tape that has to be cut through to run a business in the USA and be profitable these days.
Contributor
Is there a city in America with 400,000 people willing to work in a plant such as Foxconn?
If they didn't have EPA regulations to follow, the cleaners would likely end up in our drinking water.
Heck, even with regulations some still ends up in some of our drinking water.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
"Is there a city in America with 400,000 people willing to work in a plant such as Foxconn?"
Nevermind that. How would you like your boss coming in to your dorm room (filled with 13 other bunks - just enough room to slide into your bunk, no sitting up) in the middle of the night and send you down to the assembly line for a twelve hour shift on top of the other seventy two hours they work in a week?
NY Times:
"A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
That last sentence says it all. They are making a toy. A toy! Would you tolerate being woken up in the middle of the night to go build a toy for twelve hours? Talk about a race to the bottom.
As for the EPA, when did air and water fit for human consumption become negotiable? It's either clean or it isn't. Who are you going to trust to set and enforce safe levels, science, Dow Chemical or BP?
Measure twice, cut three times, start over. Repeat as necessary.
Member
IMHO one way to make a fairer playing field is to charge import tariffs that are proportional to the savings from not having enforced environmental regulations, not having a decent wage, having child labor. In that way we might pay more for our iPhones but more Americans would be working so we all might benefit from the overall improvement to our economy. And perhaps a few less children might be on the factory floor around the globe. Naive aren't I? Rant over.
Contributor
There - I fixed that for you.Is there a city in America with 400,000 people willing to work
Sadly, I'm only half kidding. As long as people can get by on nanny state gimmes and free health care, they have no incentive to work.
Matter of fact, actually going out and working will cut into their Netflix and/or texting time.
Member
As poor as conditions are for Chinese workers, not a single one is forced to work there. That is because the alternative--no jobs from Apple--is far worse for each of these workers.
It's a win/win relationship, and we are blessed to live in a country which has already gone through the growing pains of industrialization. We are also blessed to have many successful major companies--start forcing them to operate as the central planner utopians would like, and we'll see what it's like to have a country without these companies....
Contributor
+1. People choose this because the alternative (rice paddy farming) is even more grueling and even less profitable.
Guest
What many people don't get, is that we're at the very beginning of this process.
Urbanization in the People's Republic of China increased in speed following the initiation of the reform and opening policy. By the end of 2010, the mainland of the People's Republic of China had a total urban population of 665.57 million or 49.68 percent of the total population, rising from 26% in 1990.[1]
In the long term, China faces increasing urbanization; according to predictions, nearly 70% of the population will live in urban areas by 2035.[citation needed] Over the next two decades China will build 20,000 to 50,000 new skyscrapers and more than 170 cities will require mass transit systems by 2025.
India:
Urban expansion in India will happen at a speed quite unlike anything the country or the world has seen before. It took nearly 40 years (from 1971 to 2008) for India’s urban population to rise by nearly 230 million; it will take only half that time to add the next 250 million. This expansion will affect almost every state. For the first time in India’s history, five of its largest states will have more of their population living in cities than in villages. This interactive graphic offers a map of urbanization by state and notes which cities are poised to surpass the 4-million mark in population.
So we have a coulpe of decades (at least) of integration coming.
The last two point five decades have been a walk in the park, compared to what is coming.
Member
Ya when you read it, it doesn't sound much better than slave labour... Apple certainly likes to pat themselves on the back for their "outstanding" ethics.
Member
Nup - Africa. China is buying it up at an alarming rate. Human right in south america are considered exceptional compared to africa.
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