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News & ArtsTuesday, October 16, 2012
International Charles Dickens Today: Child Labor Used in Factory that Makes Apple Products
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 9:00 AM
WSJ:
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. acknowledged that it hired underage workers at one of its China plants, in the latest hit to the labor practices of the major contractor for Apple Inc. and other electronics giants...The feeling that we are only scratching the surface leads one to wonder about the Mike Daisey controversy. You will find more truth in his fiction than you will find in many of the newspaper stories that are carefully researched and reported. One function of the current ideological apparatus is to use truth processes against truth itself.The company didn't disclose specifics, including how many were hired, and it wasn't clear what products are made at the plant. But it said in a statement that despite "a strict company policy of not commenting on our customers or their products," that "our Yantai facility has no association with any work we carry out on behalf of Apple."
1
Why do these articles always have Apple in the headline, then mention in passing, oh yeah, and other electronics giants too. Maybe if people realized these practices were happening across all brands there would be a greater mass of outrage to try to change things?
I feel like right now all these articles do is fuel some anti-Apple schadenfreude while allowing users of Samsungs or Motorolas to falsly think they're not part of the problem.
I feel like right now all these articles do is fuel some anti-Apple schadenfreude while allowing users of Samsungs or Motorolas to falsly think they're not part of the problem.
2
The American way of life is built in slave labor, always has been. We just off-shored it a while back for the most part. No-one really wants it to change. Well, except for maybe the workers.
4
I agree with @ 1. Apple should not be excused, but they shouldn't bear the brunt of blame, either.
And there's nothing to wonder about the Mike Daisey controversy. He presented fiction as fact. He did it because presenting the truth in fiction wouldn't have had the same impact. So he lied, and set back any effort* to improve things for Chinese workers.
* If, in fact, any real effort is or was underway.
And there's nothing to wonder about the Mike Daisey controversy. He presented fiction as fact. He did it because presenting the truth in fiction wouldn't have had the same impact. So he lied, and set back any effort* to improve things for Chinese workers.
* If, in fact, any real effort is or was underway.
5
You don't honestly think all the entitled hipsters in this country would actually pay a fair price for their iPhone, do you?
7
And thank you @5 for making my point for me. This isn't an article about labor conditions in China anymore, it's about all those damn hipsters who we all hate so much with their fancy iphones.
8
@5 & 7
maybe I'm totally off base here, but Apple products are already more expensive than most other electronic gadgetry. while that price might not be so much due to labor costs as a way to make obscene profits, it seems to me that people who buy things from Apple are already accustomed to paying more.
...of course when you can get an iPhone for less than $200 with your cell upgrade, maybe 5280 is right. but I'd think that entitlement then reflects American consumers as a whole no matter what they're buying, rather than just whoever you feel like pointing the finger at, no?
maybe I'm totally off base here, but Apple products are already more expensive than most other electronic gadgetry. while that price might not be so much due to labor costs as a way to make obscene profits, it seems to me that people who buy things from Apple are already accustomed to paying more.
...of course when you can get an iPhone for less than $200 with your cell upgrade, maybe 5280 is right. but I'd think that entitlement then reflects American consumers as a whole no matter what they're buying, rather than just whoever you feel like pointing the finger at, no?
9
As David Graeber points out: "It is the secret scandal of capitalism that at no point has it been organized primarily around free labor."
Now with economies in difficult positions, slavery, debt peonage and child labor are flourishing.
Now with economies in difficult positions, slavery, debt peonage and child labor are flourishing.
10
Lee @8, agreed — mostly. Except that the younger generation tends to have less disposable income, so they bitch and whine louder.
11
He did? How many people have even heard of Mike Daisey?
set back any effort* to improve things for Chinese workers.
He did? How many people have even heard of Mike Daisey?
13
Americans know their electronic toys are made by child slaves. And American's just don't give a shit.
14
But ... but Samsung does it too! Thats all the justification I need to dismiss this issue when I buy Apple products. So child labor? Slave labor? Horrible working conditions? Just so Apple can make an obscene profit margin on gadgets that technically are inferior to products released 6 months ago.
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