iPod 6 months earnings to buy an 60GB iPod

[macpastor]

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1799

Well that article will open your eyes. Apple and every other corporation makes there profits by the abuse of humans. I would boycott Apple, even though I am a loyal user, if I could find another company that didn't do the same thing.

This shows that what really matters to Steve Jobs is $$$$$$$$$$

There is a surprise...

 

[aricher]

The Nike/iPod connection is starting to make more sense every day. I'm sure there is some truth to this article somewhere but I do find it strange that a search for the story on the daily mail site yields nothing. I realize that it says "print edition" as the source for the article but usually online papers are mined from the print editions. Could just be a hoax "article."

 

[jruc4871]

get real people

There's a little thing called an "exchange rate" that makes these salary figures seem extremely low by western standards.

Look around your desk and then think about what your credit card statment would look like had all of your purchases been produced by people making $30,000 US per year.

 

[dornoforpyros]

As un-cool as this is, I can't really say it's shocking, ever looked at your apple stuff where it says "Designed by Apple in California, Made in China" ?

The unfortunate thing is that probably 90% of the merchandise we buy in the western world that's made in China is made under similar conditions. Every time you shop at Wal-Mart your fueling this cycle. Every time you buy from Apple your fueling this cycle.

I guess this is an eye opener for some, but it really shouldn't be. I'm not saying I have the solution (I surely don't), I'm just saying this isn't that shocking.

 

[FleurDuMal]

Any UK users of Macrumors will no doubt appreciate the irony of The Mail running a 'human concern' story - the UK's most xenophobic, heartless and cold daily rag (think Fox News, but without the limited capacity for any sort of empathy). When they're in China, they're abused and exploited innocent victims of a faceless multinational; When they emigrate to seek a decent standard of living in the UK they become seedy, untrustworthy scroungers seeking an easy life.

Plus, I'm sure you could take a quick glance at major Daily Mail shareholders and see a few businessmen with interests in companies with a less than unblemished human rights record.

 

[treblah]

Multinational corporations exploit workers to keep your costs low. Film at 11.

 

[slackersonly]

1. paying employees the going local wage rate is NOT exploitation.
2. a ratio of pay vs product produced cost is irrelevant.
3. consumption of something produced elsewhere is a very new idea. like 5,000 years old.

if you want runaway inflation that leads to stagflation, by all means run a scenario in which all US purchased products are produced by US or equivilant worker wages.

 

[NJuul]

1. paying employees the going local wage rate is NOT exploitation.
2. a ratio of pay vs product produced cost is irrelevant.
3. consumption of something produced elsewhere is a very new idea. like 5,000 years old.

if you want runaway inflation that leads to stagflation, by all means run a scenario in which all US purchased products are produced by US or equivilant worker wages.

Completely true, and by by employing those workers, Apple and other multinational companies helps get the local economy up and runing, so in some 30 years or so China and other 3rd world countries might be approaching western standards of living.

 

[j26]

Completely true, and by by employing those workers, Apple and other multinational companies helps get the local economy up and runing, so in some 30 years or so China and other 3rd world countries might be approaching western standards of living.

True, it's worked everywhere it's been tried so far hasn't it?

 

[ictiosapiens]

Completely true, and by by employing those workers, Apple and other multinational companies helps get the local economy up and runing, so in some 30 years or so China and other 3rd world countries might be approaching western standards of living.

Don't try to feel better with yourself, they won't. They have a very high economical growth(4th largest economy), but there are 1.3 billion chinese people with a slightly higher output than the UK with under 60 million, and lets not forget that is a comunist state... There will be be a larger few very privileged ones, but the overrall amount of poor people will still be higher than the whole US population.

 

[mkrishnan]

Plus, I'm sure you could take a quick glance at major Daily Mail shareholders and see a few businessmen with interests in companies with a less than unblemished human rights record.

So that was what I wondered...is this source credible and balanced? The appropriate questions, to me, are whether workers are coerced into accepting poor conditions and how the conditions compare to other opportunities present *there*.

P.S. It's not like if you buy a music player from Creative or Dell, it was made by hipsters who get paid $40 an hour in a stylish glass-walled manufacturing facility on Times Square...

 

[grockk]

1. paying employees the going local wage rate is NOT exploitation.
2. a ratio of pay vs product produced cost is irrelevant.
3. consumption of something produced elsewhere is a very new idea. like 5,000 years old.

if you want runaway inflation that leads to stagflation, by all means run a scenario in which all US purchased products are produced by US or equivilant worker wages.

Exactly! I mean i make $60K/yr at a plant that makes $60K/hr in production!! Am I being exploited? hardly! This is what my job is worth to the product. To think that I should make the same as the entire plant is ludicrous.

 

[NJuul]

True, it's worked everywhere it's been tried so far hasn't it?

Yes it has, trade creates wealth, but political instability is very effective at destroying what has been created.

 

[idkfa]

The entire idea behind this is flawed and inherently incorrect.

First, you cannot look at how much they make compared to us, no matter how little. It is a different country, with a much more different economy and poverty index.

Here are some figures for salaries of SKILLED workers in the PRC:

AVERAGE ANNUAL PAY-CHINA
Project manager: £12,173
Software engineer: £6,998
Accountant: £4,677
Sales rep: £2,649
Production worker: £1,214
Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting

A salary of $50 US a month gives a annual salary of around £325 a year. Comparing the salaries of these UNSKILLED workers to SKILLED workers, it is not entirely unreasonable, all things considered. I have no direct sources to quote, but the average unskilled worker in the PRC gets between $50 - $70 US a month. This piece of "journalism is merely designed to rally people against "evil" corporate America, and tries to use our sense of economy and monatary state against them.

Second, if they were not making iPod's in a "sweatshop", they would most certainly not be making anywhere near what they are getting now.

Don't even try to look at your 6-10 USD/hour and make a comparison.

 

[aricher]

I was in Lithuania a few years ago where a bank teller would make $350/week, a physics professor $90/wk and a factory worker making stemware for IKEA was making $40/wk. At the time $40/wk was considered to be a damn fine living there. Things have changed quite a bit since they joined the EU but run down post-Soviet infrastructure and a general work-apathy among the nation's youth, among other factors are proving to be a problem. China is geared up to steamroll over the US and EU unless the western world learns to stop suckling the teat of cheap goods/labor.

 

[milo]

I'm not sure what people would propose as an alternative?

Pay the workers much more, raising the price by a huge factor and impossible to compete with all the other MP3 players that are made under similar conditions?

Are there any mp3 players made by workers making anything close to US wages?

 

[iGary]

1. paying employees the going local wage rate is NOT exploitation.
2. a ratio of pay vs product produced cost is irrelevant.
3. consumption of something produced elsewhere is a very new idea. like 5,000 years old.

if you want runaway inflation that leads to stagflation, by all means run a scenario in which all US purchased products are produced by US or equivilant worker wages.

What he said.

 

[notjustjay]

Pay the workers much more, raising the price by a huge factor and impossible to compete with all the other MP3 players that are made under similar conditions?

... and destroying the country's economy, in so doing...

 

[idkfa]

Are there any mp3 players made by workers making anything close to US wages?

If they were, in China at least, they would be making more money than 99% of the entire population. iPod factory workers would become the upper class.

If you mean somewhere in North America or Europe, then I am not sure...

 

[Counterfit]

The entire idea behind this is flawed and inherently incorrect.

First, you cannot look at how much they make compared to us, no matter how little. It is a different country, with a much more different economy and poverty index.

Here are some figures for salaries of SKILLED workers in the PRC:

AVERAGE ANNUAL PAY-CHINA
Project manager: £12,173
Software engineer: £6,998
Accountant: £4,677
Sales rep: £2,649
Production worker: £1,214
Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting

A salary of $50 US a month gives a annual salary of around £325 a year. Comparing the salaries of these UNSKILLED workers to SKILLED workers, it is not entirely unreasonable, all things considered. I have no direct sources to quote, but the average unskilled worker in the PRC gets between $50 - $70 US a month. This piece of "journalism is merely designed to rally people against "evil" corporate America, and tries to use our sense of economy and monatary state against them.

Second, if they were not making iPod's in a "sweatshop", they would most certainly not be making anywhere near what they are getting now.

Don't even try to look at your 6-10 USD/hour and make a comparison.

Actually, the article said "as little as $50 per week". 50x52 = uh, gimme a second...



$2600-ish per year. And I take $50 as the usual minimum. Of course, the factories are owned by Foxconn. Good luck boycotting everything containing their products.

 

[AlBDamned]

1. paying employees the going local wage rate is NOT exploitation.

The only problem here is that many of the workers in these factories are not even paid minimum/local rate wage. Also, the health and safety nightmare within, the flagrant disregard for human rights issues at a local and ruling level, plus a completely disinterested purchaser (such as Apple or Dell or whoever), make this a very real and very big problem.

This article actually paints a pretty soft picture compared to a lot of the stories I've read about these factories from research institutes and NGOs.

2. a ratio of pay vs product produced cost is irrelevant.
3. consumption of something produced elsewhere is a very new idea. like 5,000 years old.

if you want runaway inflation that leads to stagflation, by all means run a scenario in which all US purchased products are produced by US or equivilant worker wages.

Both true, but Apple could force these contracting companies to improve beyond their current levels without too many problems, it just might cost them a little bit.

They won't do it though, as few of their competitors are doing it and until people stop buying their products because of it, or legislation forces them to look at the situation in supplier factories, they just don't have too.

 

[NewSc2]

Open my eyes? Have you compared the local costs of living?

It would take an iPod maker 6 months earnings just to stay 1 night at Las Vegas. I guess we should boycott Vegas too.

 

[QCassidy352]

This article actually paints a pretty soft picture compared to a lot of the stories I've read about these factories from research institutes and NGOs.

right, 'cause NGOs and "research institutes" don't have agendas to push... they seek nothing but truth as pure as the driven snow. (I'm interning for an NGO now, and believe me, they have an agenda, and it's not the unvarnished truth.)

 

[x86]

I have a hard time buying that item X would be %500 more expensive if built in the U.S. / U.K. If you think about it, we buy cheap items made in our own countries all the time. Sure, most of them are food or bathroom products, but they are not outrageously expensive at all. I understand that labor among other things is extremely cheap in China, but most of the savings is being passed on to the corporate officials. Look at designer shoes for instance. A very large majority of them are made in China... are they cheap? Not at all. The cheap labor benefits the shoe company, not the consumers. Greed. Its as simple as that.

 

[Peterkro]

Don't try to feel better with yourself, they won't. They have a very high economical growth(4th largest economy), but there are 1.3 billion chinese people with a slightly higher output than the UK with under 60 million, and lets not forget that is a comunist state... There will be be a larger few very privileged ones, but the overrall amount of poor people will still be higher than the whole US population.

And this is different from the US or UK how?