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Poor living conditions in China is not America's blame. How much of each American consumer dollar goes to the Chinese workers and how much to the new Chinese billionaires? Foxconn is Taiwanese so those billionaire owners aren't even in PR China.

Raise the workers' wages and it's not the American consumer forcing the Chinese workers out of work, it's the Chinese billionaire owner passing that cost on to maintain his huge profit margin.

Ditto India, which has more individual millionaires than Australia's entire population. It's not Australians exploiting the Indian workers in call centres and profiting from their cheap labour, it's Indians.

Maybe I wasn't clear, I'm rarely a lucid thinker, but I wasn't trying to blame America - quite the opposite. I'm just saying that Americans outraged over conditions at Foxconn, who is apparently a desirable employer among the average Chinese person, seem to think everyone is entitled to an American-style livlihood and lifestyle. This is unrealistic. We are hugely, uniquely spoiled. And that can be a depressing thought.
 
Maybe I wasn't clear, I'm rarely a lucid thinker, but I wasn't trying to blame America - quite the opposite. I'm just saying that Americans outraged over conditions at Foxconn, who is apparently a desirable employer among the average Chinese person, seem to think everyone is entitled to an American-style livlihood and lifestyle. This is unrealistic. We are hugely, uniquely spoiled. And that can be a depressing thought.

Again, thumbs up to one of the few in this thread that gets it.

For all the people bawling their eyes out for the poor, downtrodden Chinese hi tech factory worker, I wonder what you'd think if you saw a real sweatshop in Vietnam or Haiti (remember them, the place with the earthquake)? I guess all you outraged posters are bashing away on the Nike and Levi's forums, right? :rolleyes:
 
hi ppls,

long time lurker, first time poster.

I have just been informed by my colleague from Dongguan that another foxconn employee comitted suicide at about 11:00pmlocal time (26th May) last night. This is very sad news, as the previous suicide was only 2 days ago.

RIP.

Let's hope no more suicides will occur.
 
hi ppls,

long time lurker, first time poster.

I have just been informed by my colleague from Dongguan that another foxconn employee comitted suicide at about 11:00pmlocal time (26th May) last night. This is very sad news, as the previous suicide was only 2 days ago.

RIP.

Let's hope no more suicides will occur.

If this is true, I'm sure we'll hear all about it from the mainstream tech media.
 
If iPad pricing started at $999, all you'd hear is whining about how overpriced Apple products are. I've never seen so much hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth over something that is basically not even statistically surprising. Of course, most of the posters complaining the loudest are Apple-haters who will jump at the slightest opportunity to bash the company.
Exactly.
'Support human rights'? What does that nonsense even mean? Apparently it means being able to afford a pointless* consumer electronics device. If you're saddened by these Foxconn stories, you're ultimately saddened by the reality of most human and animal life. ****'s unfair and most of us endure a great deal of suffering before we die. If there is any real joy to be had in life, it certainly won't come from an iPad.
And what exactly do you expect Apple to do in the area of 'supporting human rights'? Benevolent global dictator Jobs is going to single handedly uppend the social and economic realities in China? Move assembly elsewhere and send one million people into unemployment? So much for human rights.
Few people or organizations or governments have the ability to affect real positive change in this world. And those who do are only successful when a larger trend supports their efforts. Ultimately, we're all at the mercy of a reality formed, unpredictably, by our collective choices and actions.
Agreed.

Well that's not what you did. It might seem to you that "you simply stated where was the outrage" but that is a lot different to what you typed.
This is not "simply stating" anything. It's long and contradictory tirades by someone trying weakly trying to justify their position and attempting to undermine anyone with a different opinion.
He is just stating his opinion and what he is doing about it. And then he is addressing all the hypocrisy that is going on. I don't actually agree completely with his opinion, but he does makes sense. Nothing contradictory, that I see.
 
Suicide rate at Foxconn: 13 per 400,000 = 4.25 per 100,000
Average suicide rate in China: 13 per 100,000 (males) to 14.8 per 100,000 (females).

So, the suicide rate at Foxconn is about 1/5 to 1/4 of the national average.

Tragic, to be sure, but not exactly news.
 
The latest death toll is 13, last one just committed today...
To make thing even worse, the 14th and 15th are now found sitting on the roof of one of the foxconn complex, preparing for a "dual jump" apparently....hope the Chinese police can stop them before too late. Rumors have it that familes got huge compensation for their kid found dead within Foxconn(huge, compared with their hourly wage )...Anyway, someone somehow has to stop this mess..:eek:

20100527153310128.jpg
 
Does Foxconn make Macbooks?

Sadly, my love for humankind doesn't outweigh my desire for a macbook, and only one company makes Macs (I have no other option), but I would feel better if I wasn't funding a sweatshop.

Does Foxconn only make iPhones? Or do they make all of Apple's computers?
 
Sorry to break it to you but most of the laptops produced in China will be produced in similar conditions as those reported at Foxconn.
 
Foxconn is an independent company itself that has its own administration which Apple cannot personally control. Whatever you read on the news is never the full story. Apple is not Foxconn's only client - to name a few large ones, there is HP, Dell etc.

There is too much evil in this world already. The shoes and clothes you wear are made in China, India or Bangladesh under human conditions you can't imagine in your nightmares. They just don't make it to the news.

I have love for human life and human rights too. As a photojournalist, I often find myself at loss to see the darker sides of this world. However, if you abandon Apple for a human society's fault, you're the one who loses out. Its China's local problem, let them sort it out.
 
foxconn make ALOT of things, chips, etc. apple uses them alot - and have for many many years (going back to PPC i believe). nothing against them. they seem to go great.
 
Is this about the BS sweatshop story about the suicides at Foxconn?

They have 400.000 employees. The average number of suicides among employees is not different from the rest of the country.

But for some reason it stimulated some BS stories.

You don't know what a real sweatshop is.
 
Then you better avoid Sony, HP, Dell, Intel, Nintendo, Microsoft, Motorola, Amazon Kindle and Cisco, just to name a few. They all use Foxconn.

So, do you currently own any of the following consoles: Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 2 or Playstation 3 or Microsoft Xbox360?

They are all made by Foxconn.
 
Then you better avoid Sony, HP, Dell, Intel, Nintendo, Microsoft, Motorola, Amazon Kindle and Cisco, just to name a few.

So, do you currently own any of the following consoles: Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 2 or Playstation 3 or Microsoft Xbox360?

They are all made by Foxconn.

well said lol :D love that.

they are also in mobile phones too!
 
Bosmonster is right. Foxconn has 400,000 employees in Shenzhen. If the suicide rate of its employees matches that of the general population in the US (11.1/100,000), 44 will take their lives every year!

Sensationalist reporting is not helping though. It can fuel the trend. Just like about a decent ago, those BS stories fuel a suicide cluster in Hong Kong where quite a few ppl chose a particular way to commit suicide - burning charcoal in a sealed room to produce carbon monoxide.
 
Bosmonster is right. Foxconn has 400,000 employees in Shenzhen. If the suicide rate of its employees matches that of the general population in the US (11.1/100,000), 44 will take their lives every year!

Sensationalist reporting is not helping though. It can fuel the trend. Just like about a decent ago, those BS stories fuel a suicide cluster in Hong Kong where quite a few ppl chose a particular way to commit suicide - burning charcoal in a sealed room to produce carbon monoxide.

well a any company the suicide rate should be less than the general population. Give the fact that they have a job so they do not have those stresses of no work.

That being said with that many employees you will see sucides.

Now if you want a company to avoid Foxconn as much as possible for a computer I would recommend http://www.pugetsystems.com/ They are a small custom building PC company that are located in the US. They build their stuff here in the US.
 
Foxconn/apple=same

Considering I was in the Apple store 5/25/10, only to have my Iphone 3gs replaced for a new one,which sucked but had to because the screen was blanking out periodically. As I was waiting on them to run their test, I noticed as employees was getting off they had to literally find the supervisor and allow him to look in their bags before they could leave. I watched four employees perform this...Wow!!!!!!! That store is in Alpharetta,Ga. North Point Mall

Go:apple:
 
Considering I was in the Apple store 5/25/10, only to have my Iphone 3gs replaced for a new one,which sucked but had to because the screen was blanking out periodically. As I was waiting on them to run their test, I noticed as employees was getting off they had to literally find the supervisor and allow him to look in their bags before they could leave. I watched four employees perform this...Wow!!!!!!! That store is in Alpharetta,Ga. North Point Mall

Go:apple:
You should see what workers at the US Mint go through...
 
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