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Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

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Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#91

Post by zenocon »

deelowe wrote: post #85
mcantelon wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This "journalist" puts 1 single Chinese company under a microscope and incites people of first world nations to pick up their pitch forks and torches in protest. Sure the conditions at Foxconn are terrible in comparison to my world view, but I'm not Chinese and my world view is irrelevant here. Did you actually read the article? A Chinese journalist reporting in Chinese media would indicate that Foxconn's conditions…

I did and I didn't see anything that provided comparison with conditions in other Chinese factories. I have no way to know what's typical and what's not.

> However, the Chinese new agency Shanghai Evening Post has posted a pretty scathing review of the working conditions at Foxconn, and in particular the iPhone 5 production line.

It doesn't make a lot of sense for Chinese media to do a hit piece for Chinese readers if the working conditions are the norm.

Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#92

Post by sjwright »

AndyNemmity wrote: post #90
sjwright wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. And besides, isn't Apple something like 0.001% of Chinese manufacturing output? Apple isn't the problem; if anything Apple may well be the strongest force for positive change at Foxconn.

And Apple is the strongest force for positive change at Foxconn because of articles like this.

I guess all Apple could ask is that we share the love. :-D

Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#93

Post by PetrolMan »

Forget Apple for a moment.

I don't understand why so many people are trying to defend the working conditions. Fine, the conditions may be considered fine in the context of China. That does not make them acceptable; it just means that the working conditions in China as a whole are bad.

If I'm honest, I had not ever considered the plight of the Chinese factory worker. I use things everyday that are manufactured in China under conditions that might be worse than those at Foxconn. That being said, this article was useful in that it opened my eyes a bit. This isn't to say that I thought the working conditions were probably great. I just had never considered them at all. It's quite easy to live in a bubble and sometimes articles like this help break out of it.

Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#94

Post by jrwoodruff »

deelowe wrote: post #84
Vivtek wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's with this fixation on Foxconn and Apple? Apple is the most successful business in history. They have literally billions of dollars in the bank. The fact that they have reached this position by exploiting international labor conditions is dissonant with the glowing opinion of them in the American press. It is seen as hypocritical. From your tone, I infer that you think you may agree - but that you feel conflict…

Injustice means one thing for me and another for someone living in China. I have no idea what the standard of living is over there for a typical factory worker. Is it better or worse than the alternatives? I don't know. Foxconn could be a pioneer of beter living and working conditions for the country and I'd never know it. I'm biased towards a first world view on these matters. Everything must be considered when doin…

Injustice means one thing for me and another for a negro. I have no idea what the standard of living is for typical negros. Is it better or worse than the alternatives? I don't know. Confederate cotton farmers could be a pioneer of better living and working conditions for negros I'd never know it. I'm biased towards a Union view on these matters. Everything must be considered when doing these types of comparisons, but there is no comparison here, just an editorial on how deplorable working conditions are. Again, on confederate cotton farms. I assume cotton farms aren't this way all over the country. My stance is that this is an issue the government needs to resolve. It's unreasonable to expect cotton farmers or t-shirt manufacturers to do anything about this on their own accord. I doubt they are behaving any differently than any other company with cotton manufacturing operations. There's no need to crucify cotton farmers or t-shirt manufacturers over this.

Sounds kinda ridiculous when you change a coupla words, no?

Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#95

Post by jimmyjim »

deelowe wrote: post #84
Vivtek wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's with this fixation on Foxconn and Apple? Apple is the most successful business in history. They have literally billions of dollars in the bank. The fact that they have reached this position by exploiting international labor conditions is dissonant with the glowing opinion of them in the American press. It is seen as hypocritical. From your tone, I infer that you think you may agree - but that you feel conflict…

Injustice means one thing for me and another for someone living in China. I have no idea what the standard of living is over there for a typical factory worker. Is it better or worse than the alternatives? I don't know. Foxconn could be a pioneer of beter living and working conditions for the country and I'd never know it. I'm biased towards a first world view on these matters. Everything must be considered when doin…

Your railing on this article undermines your whole point. You say that you lack perspective as to what the living conditions are in different Chinese factories -- but you fail to recognize that this article gives you one more data point than you previously had. You gain perspective by having more articles bringing these issues to light a little at a time.

It is also worth noting that the article in question was originally written by a news agency from Shanghai -- it is not an American, outsider-perspective that's painting a scathing picture, it's the Chinese themselves with their own experiences.

Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#96

Post by prodigal_erik »

SeanDav wrote: post #88
deelowe wrote: post #53

This "journalist" puts 1 single Chinese company under a microscope and incites people of first world nations to pick up their pitch forks and torches in protest. Sure the conditions at Foxconn are terrible in comparison to my world view, but I'm not Chinese and my world view is irrelevant here. You know how I know this article is trash? This statement right here: "It also appears that windows have had bars put over t…

and what is/was wrong with slavery, after all every one was doing it and probably slaves on plantations had better living conditions than the people they came from living in the bush... Don't blame the poor plantation owners, they are just doing the same thing as all the others.... Sheesh, until now I never realized it was possible to have your head so far up your ass it ended up buried in the sand...

The fix for slavery was to ban it across the country. Individual plantation owners couldn't voluntarily give it up if it made them uncompetitive against those who didn't.

Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#97

Post by adrianwaj »

There should be a site: foxconnsponsors.com - something akin to sponsoring a child (World Vision). Maybe Apple can setup the site - iWorkers.com and you get to see pictures through your iPhone of how these iWorkers' lives have been transformed through iWorkers.com. Heck, make it accept bitcoins.

Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#99

Post by mortalkastor »

I'm appalled by the comments here. The consensus seems to be that the terrible working condition of the people making our favorite gadgets doesn't matter and shouldn't get coverage because you can find even poorer conditions in the same country.

Fucking hippies lamenting over the lot of a few Chinese working 10 h/day in a toxic prison factory while they are not even totally enslaved.

Re: Journalist goes undercover making the iPhone 5 at Foxconn

#100

Post by nickik »

deelowe wrote: post #53

This "journalist" puts 1 single Chinese company under a microscope and incites people of first world nations to pick up their pitch forks and torches in protest. Sure the conditions at Foxconn are terrible in comparison to my world view, but I'm not Chinese and my world view is irrelevant here. You know how I know this article is trash? This statement right here: "It also appears that windows have had bars put over t…

> . There's no reason to expect Foxconn to act any differently than any other Chinese company. The issue here is the Chinese government and their lack of concern for fair and equal treatment of workers.

I would say you are wrong partially wrong here, at least in the long term. We did not have good condition 50 or 100 years ago, the conditions in china are better then they where 30 years ago too.

The richers a society the better there places of work will become.

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