You shouldn’t care that the iPhone was made by 13 year old Chinese kids for .70 an ho

[poofyhairguy]

As long as they take those wages and invest in products like Coke and iPhones (that they might have made) full of red,white, and blue margins I am alright with the entire world upping their status. Americans who can't compete for factory jobs can always be involved in domestic industries that aren't going anywhere, like helping grow all that high-fructose corn syrup for others to consume in Coke.

Soft power is the real power in the 21st century...

 

[amdhunter]

70 cents an hour there is like $40/hr here in the US, so it isn't an issue.

 

[akugami]

Not sure who you're "breaking it" to. OP's article discusses this.

Because the article title is misleading and makes it seem like only Apple's products are made by "underpaid" workers. In today's society, most people just skim the articles or don't bother to read it at all. I know one of my English teachers said he's guilty of the same thing. Now, this is a guy who writes articles, and teaches English at a university. And he's guilty of skimming through articles. He'll catch the gist of it but it's very easy to miss pertinent details such as the fact that companies like HTC, Motorola, Samsung, etc. use the same plants to make or assemble electronics as Apple.

One should also take into account, that the 70 cent goes much further than it does in the USA. This is also a lot more than they can get elsewhere at a lot of other jobs. I'm not saying working conditions are great in China, but they're not as bad as some are making it out to be and it's similar to the economic development that went on in the USA. Economics is a very complex issue.

 

[akugami]

70 cents an hour there is like $40/hr here in the US, so it isn't an issue.

Depending on the area of China you live in, it's actually more like $5-10. Just like the cost of living in different areas of the US is different, it's the same in China.One difference is that there's no different minimum wages to account for the cost of living differences. The 70 cents can still be considered underpaid but it's not as horrid as some are making it out to be.

 

[Red Storm]

It's obvious all the big players make use of that same labor. I like how the article tries to say it's only Foxconn and China's fault, not the companies that happily do business with them. :hmm:

I think the spotlight is on Apple here because they make a huge amount of profit on their products, much more than their competitors AFAIK. That certainly doesn't excuse these other companies from doing the same thing, but it sure does make it look worse for Apple.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Depending on the area of China you live in, it's actually more like $5-10. Just like the cost of living in different areas of the US is different, it's the same in China.One difference is that there's no different minimum wages to account for the cost of living differences. The 70 cents can still be considered underpaid but it's not as horrid as some are making it out to be.

5$ an hour is pretty horrid. It's certainly not a pay that is acceptable for an American to try to live off of in pretty much any part of the US.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

It's obvious all the big players make use of that same labor. I like how the article tries to say it's only Foxconn and China's fault, not the companies that happily do business with them. :hmm:

I think the spotlight is on Apple here because they make a huge amount of profit on their products, much more than their competitors AFAIK. That certainly doesn't excuse these other companies from doing the same thing, but it sure does make it look worse for Apple.

Yea, they could easily afford to pay their workers a reasonable wage, but they'd rather line their coffers a bit more or use it to sue their competitors. It's pretty disgusting really.

 

[alent1234]

It's obvious all the big players make use of that same labor. I like how the article tries to say it's only Foxconn and China's fault, not the companies that happily do business with them. :hmm:

I think the spotlight is on Apple here because they make a huge amount of profit on their products, much more than their competitors AFAIK. That certainly doesn't excuse these other companies from doing the same thing, but it sure does make it look worse for Apple.

apple has less and simplified product lines than most of their competitors. one reason for their margins.

 

[shortylickens]

I dont think I could contribute anything helpful to this thread.
Hopefully not too many people get banned.

 

[akugami]

5$ an hour is pretty horrid. It's certainly not a pay that is acceptable for an American to try to live off of in pretty much any part of the US.

Keep in mind housing is much cheaper in most areas and a lot of housing is government subsidized. Again, economics is a complex issue but it's not as bad as it looks as far as pay is concerned. The bigger issue is the long hours and lack of breaks. And again keep in mind that the USA and most developed nations faced similar growing pains.

Lots of people actually want these types of jobs because they're higher paying than anything else they can get. There are positives and negatives to the pay/work issue. Not saying it's good, not saying it's bad, just saying it is what it is.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I dont think I could contribute anything helpful to this thread.
Hopefully not too many people get banned.

If I was PM I would go plop this thread in politics or off topic. For all the times troll threads have been plopped here no reason not to.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

Yea, they could easily afford to pay their workers a reasonable wage, but they'd rather line their coffers a bit more or use it to sue their competitors. It's pretty disgusting really.

Unless you are referring to their engineering design teams (who already get paid a pretty good wage) the extra money that Apple pays Foxconn or other manufacturers would just be absorbed by that company with no real assurance of any wage increase for the assemblers.

 

[Red Storm]

Unless you are referring to their engineering design teams (who already get paid a pretty good wage) the extra money that Apple pays Foxconn or other manufacturers would just be absorbed by that company with no real assurance of any wage increase for the assemblers.

I assume he means they could easily afford to do business elsewhere.

 

[pm]

If I was PM I would go plop this thread in politics or off topic. For all the times troll threads have been plopped here no reason not to.

That is actually a good suggestion. But they might toss it back in MD&G again.

I've been watching this thread and trying to decide what to do with it. It's relevant to MD&G... sort of. But it gets into a whole lot of politics. I'm not sure that I think discussion union wages in the US is on-topic for MD&G.

I'll muse on it a little more.


After some consideration, I'm locking this thread. Primarily because it's more political than relevant to mobile devices, and the thread conversation has gone that way as well with discussions of union wages and other off-topic political discussions. Poofyhairguy had the good suggestion of moving it to Off-Topic, but I don't want to get the OT mods annoyed with me, so I'm going to let it die here in MD&G.

Moderator PM