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The workers at the foxconn factories have a lower suicide rate than the average for all people in the provinces in which the factories are located. A few dozen suicides is a normal number out of a population of 350,000 human beings, which is how many foxconn's iPhone City holds.
"Dying for an iPhone" is a good read on the state of Foxconn and Apple's labor practices, which seem to generally continue to be "abusive at best." It does lead to not really wanting to touch any of modern consumer electronics, though.
I know that’s the popular western view. But at least in this case, it doesn’t seem to be related to Foxconn. It looks as though Xu even enjoyed his time at Foxconn (given he left and then came back, and was actively involved in the newspaper). The problem was, he wasn’t enjoying his time in society. I think the high suicide rate is related to the plight of migrant workers (datong) in China. It is a reflection of just…
"Dying for an iPhone" is a good read on the state of Foxconn and Apple's labor practices, which seem to generally continue to be "abusive at best." It does lead to not really wanting to touch any of modern consumer electronics, though.
I know that’s the popular western view. But at least in this case, it doesn’t seem to be related to Foxconn. It looks as though Xu even enjoyed his time at Foxconn (given he left and then came back, and was actively involved in the newspaper). The problem was, he wasn’t enjoying his time in society. I think the high suicide rate is related to the plight of migrant workers (datong) in China. It is a reflection of just…
That is opposite his words in the article. He did not appear to enjoy his time at Foxconn.
A space of ten square meters
Cramped and damp, no sunlight all year
Here I eat, sleep, shit, and think
Cough, get headaches, grow old, get sick but still fail to die
Under the dull yellow light again I stare blankly, chuckling like an idiot
I pace back and forth, singing softly, reading, writing poems
Every time I open the window or the wicker gate
I seem like a dead man
Slowly pushing open the lid of a coffin.The workers at the foxconn factories have a lower suicide rate than the average for all people in the provinces in which the factories are located. A few dozen suicides is a normal number out of a population of 350,000 human beings, which is how many foxconn's iPhone City holds.
Foxconn doesn’t force people to work there, and they can resign at anytime.
The problem is, life outside of your houkou in China is soul crushingly hard. But if you are born in rural China your life in your houkou will be soul crushingly boring/mundane.
It’s not a good choice.
We're all a part of this. I've been asking myself questions, at an increasing rate lately, like "where does all this material come from?", "who makes all this stuff?", "what's the effect of making this?', etc., and any hint of an answer leads to nowhere good quite quickly. That is especially true when you consider the human and other animal elements. Just looking into the trash makes you realize the insane amount of…
A number of the environmental groups have subtly shifted over the past decade or two from "How can we protect the environment?" to "How can we maintain industrial civilization levels of energy consumption and all our conveniences, but carbon neutral?" They are not the same question or issue, even though they're often confused.
The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18433548 - Nov 2018 (271 comments)
The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (1990-2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8561326 - Nov 2014 (83 comments)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know that’s the popular western view. But at least in this case, it doesn’t seem to be related to Foxconn. It looks as though Xu even enjoyed his time at Foxconn (given he left and then came back, and was actively involved in the newspaper). The problem was, he wasn’t enjoying his time in society. I think the high suicide rate is related to the plight of migrant workers (datong) in China. It is a reflection of just…
> It looks as though Xu even enjoyed his time at Foxconn That is opposite his words in the article. He did not appear to enjoy his time at Foxconn. A space of ten square meters Cramped and damp, no sunlight all year Here I eat, sleep, shit, and think Cough, get headaches, grow old, get sick but still fail to die Under the dull yellow light again I stare blankly, chuckling like an idiot I pace back and forth, singing…
A billion Chinese people have been brought out of dire poverty by the manufacturing jobs that the export business has created. (https://ourworldindata.org/app/uploads/2017/02/poverty-decli...).
Life for half the world's people sucks - but companies like Apple make it better, not worse. I say this as someone who doesn't use any Apple products and doesn't particularly like the company.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know that’s the popular western view. But at least in this case, it doesn’t seem to be related to Foxconn. It looks as though Xu even enjoyed his time at Foxconn (given he left and then came back, and was actively involved in the newspaper). The problem was, he wasn’t enjoying his time in society. I think the high suicide rate is related to the plight of migrant workers (datong) in China. It is a reflection of just…
"enjoyed his time at Foxconn" is not remotely an accurate summary of the fine article - perhaps it's more like the opposite
