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An Inside Look at How iPads Are Assembled and Tested
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lets be honest who cared how much the workers were making a day before the sucides and other incidents that have happened no one really cared everyone was happy to have there ipods iphones ipads hp devices amazon etc. Then it leaks out that such things have happened apple have to show a face on the subject so send new boss over to have a look. Frankly the working conditions look better than some places i have worked
That depends on your definition of "quality of life". You could also consider that the American Way is spoiled rotten.
Who, making money, doesn't like large margins? Greed is good? Ayn Rand and all that other stuff...
The reality is, Apple has no incentive to take the hits monetarily. I think its immoral-but there's little you can do about it. Does that make me an occupier, or you someone who thinks that people make too much money in general aside from those your sympathize with who "really deserve it"?
Which electronics do you refer to? There is plenty of cheap electronic stuff. If you want highly luxurious items like an iPad, then yes, they are very expensive. But that's an American company setting the price in China.
Prove to me that the Foxconn workers' quality of life is considerably worse than the American way. Bear in mind that they've never experienced the Western way, so probably have the same satisfaction levels as American workers.
I really dislike the strong emphasis on folk from the US implying the American way is the best way of life. It's pretty ignorant.
...aaaaand this is how difficult that was to find out.
Google "average rent shenzhen", second hit (for me anyway):
http://www.startinchina.com/shenzhen/life/cost_of_living_in_shenzhen.html
Thank you for pointing out that comparing wages from one country to another without taking the cost of living into account renders the comparison meaningless. It should be pointed out that in the video the reporter points out that the wages double after a couple of years.
Please understand, this is not meant as a judgement, positive or negative, about the working conditions and wages at Foxconn, or in China in general. Nor whether it is Apple's responsibility to pressure Foxconn to increase wages.
My comment is only in response to those who assert that the wages are poor. The question is...poor, relative to what and relative to the cost of living.
It's been a long time since I saw such primitive assembly processes in serial production - only posssible when human work is worthless!
here are a few examples of high-quality production:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij0N1E_5dwk
No, that's not Pandora (despie the blue peolpe^^), it's Switzerland, people earning up to 60$/h making mass products with unparalleled efficiency.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7nDqhNBWzo
Washing machine production at Miele. Also 40-60$/h - highly-trained craftsmen operating and maintaining complex machines, ergonomic manual workplaces - people work there for 45 years and retire without ruining their health!
Or (maybe more popular) just car production:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCXFsQ6kKQ&feature=relmfu
All of these products are averagely priced (or at the higher end, just like Apple), made in large scale, very complex and contain a variety of production processes (electronic, metal, assembly...). None of these facilities higher the same quantity of production workers but a higher quality - that's sustainable, that's the future, not pushing lower standards, destroying millions of jobs and creating sub-standard ones in dictatorships just because it's convenient!
No, the IPad is neither cheaper nor better because it's made in China. BMW also tries to run production sites in countries with lower standards - they depend on the experience and QM of the core fabs and they're not more profitable (despite up to 10x lower wages)!
The consumer electronics industry has to learn a lot and Apple is in the position to start a new revolution for higher quality, higher standards and sustainable standards! How can California still be financially ruined when dozens of companies rooted there make hundreds of billions profit? Was it the same in Detroit 100 years ago when Henry Ford started his facility? Something is seriously rotten in our economy, that's for sure!
here are a few examples of high-quality production:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij0N1E_5dwk
No, that's not Pandora (despie the blue peolpe^^), it's Switzerland, people earning up to 60$/h making mass products with unparalleled efficiency.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7nDqhNBWzo
Washing machine production at Miele. Also 40-60$/h - highly-trained craftsmen operating and maintaining complex machines, ergonomic manual workplaces - people work there for 45 years and retire without ruining their health!
Or (maybe more popular) just car production:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhCXFsQ6kKQ&feature=relmfu
All of these products are averagely priced (or at the higher end, just like Apple), made in large scale, very complex and contain a variety of production processes (electronic, metal, assembly...). None of these facilities higher the same quantity of production workers but a higher quality - that's sustainable, that's the future, not pushing lower standards, destroying millions of jobs and creating sub-standard ones in dictatorships just because it's convenient!
No, the IPad is neither cheaper nor better because it's made in China. BMW also tries to run production sites in countries with lower standards - they depend on the experience and QM of the core fabs and they're not more profitable (despite up to 10x lower wages)!
The consumer electronics industry has to learn a lot and Apple is in the position to start a new revolution for higher quality, higher standards and sustainable standards! How can California still be financially ruined when dozens of companies rooted there make hundreds of billions profit? Was it the same in Detroit 100 years ago when Henry Ford started his facility? Something is seriously rotten in our economy, that's for sure!
But yes, considering in China, PhD student usually only get $7.00 a day, $14 for sure is high salary~
If you want to buy goods on the international market, its much more expensive in China than the US. Its not that their way of life is worse at all, and its true some things are MUCH cheaper. However, as an American, I think I'd be less hostile to it all if people paid the Chinese closer to American wages, which could be afforded. IMPORTANTLY-Paying people in China would NOT result on them suddenly having the American way of life. I do not see how one could say "How dare you judge those people based on the fact you think their purchasing power for international goods is terrible!" Paying people fewer wages and pocketing the difference is business smart and might help the community a little. But that doesn't mean we think its fair when our factories are moved so people can't afford to make a product that we used to be able to buy...
Yeah but Foxconn isn't employing people from Shanghai. That's why most of their factories are located deep in rural China.
That's like saying a wage of $20/hr is unlivable in rural Pennsylvania because apartments on Manhattan island can go for well over $3K/month, when in actuality you can live very comfortably on that wage in a place where rents are $400/month.
What a stupid idea....
If Apple instituted incentive or bonus plans there, that would simply push the workers to work faster and for longer hours, so higher "goals" would be achieved. Under the circumstances, that doesn't sound at ALL like an improvement for them.
If Apple instituted incentive or bonus plans there, that would simply push the workers to work faster and for longer hours, so higher "goals" would be achieved. Under the circumstances, that doesn't sound at ALL like an improvement for them.
Again, the wages are relative. Things that cost $10 in the US don't cost $10 in China. You think that a banana that costs $1 in America costs $1 in China?
So if I worked on a Ferrari production line, you think it is unfair that I'd never be able to afford one? What about people who work on Airbus or Boeing production lines, how awful it is they'll never own their own plane!
Come on, it doesn't matter what the product is they are manufacturing and how much that product costs and whether they can afford it themselves.
EDIT: I've responded to what I quoted there, but reading it back, I'm not even sure what you mean.
Ok then, it seems they are underpaid.
Approx. wages: $420/mo
Average rent: $317.00/mo
Although food is very cheap, it does not look good.
Good Point.
That's what I mean, we don't know enough to assume exploitation.
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I can't believe with all the unemployment in the USA people are not pushing for some if not all of these jobs. I personally can't stand these big Corporations making hand over fist and don't take care of their own back yard. Billions in profit what a friggin joke when people here are starving. What happened to the good old USA pride. FYI I am not even from the States. I believe in making a profit but come on people give your head a shake.
You can buy cheap knock-off electronics in the US too, so I'm not sure what your point is. You are dodging the point I made. Stuff isn't less expensive there, rather it is that the stuff there is cheaper, and I'm not talking about price but about quality. You are claiming stuff is less expensive in China, can you prove that without ignoring the important differences between the products? Most of the "essential" items in an American's life would be considered luxurious by Chinese standards.
No, I'm not going to go through the trouble of doing so. I thought I was conversing with someone who was knowledgeable about these matters. If you aren't already aware of what the typical life of a Chinese person is like, then I find that regrettable. You can insulate yourself in a bubble ignoring the external realities if you like, but you should at least be aware that many of us will find that behavior reprehensible.
As if that is a reasonable metric to use. The satisfaction of the people isn't the issue here. What is at issue is that simply because of sheer luck, some are being born in a Western culture, with a life that will be considerably easier and more luxurious than the lives of those who didn't win the birth lottery.
I'm not American. I am looking at things from as objective a standpoint as I can though. Consider this thought experiment. Imagine before you were born, and before you had formed any cultural identity, cherishing the values that you do, you had to choose between being born in a Western society or in the much more impoverished Eastern one, which would you choose? I'd wager, and yes this is an unprovable conjecture that appeals to common-sense and your sense of the reasonable, that everyone would choose the former option.
Granted, it is spoiled rotten, but are you suggesting a life of hardship, poverty, and disease is better than the luxurious life of safety and health?
Good thing that $14 will buy them 4 or 5 meals at McDonalds in China. Although that's still kind of expensive and I fail to see the attraction.
You think people in China have banana's all year around? Their food might be cheaper than ours in the West, but our diet is far more luxurious than theirs, and that's the main reason why our produce is the price that it is. We don't only ever eat what's produced locally and in season, and that's a significant reason why the cost of our food increases to the levels that it does.
How many hours do they work in a year? What's their salary like?
Agreed, what matters if what their money can buy, that is, what kind of life their money provides them.