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Should You Feel Guilty Owning an iPhone?
Toms Hardware ^ | 5/28/2010 | Wolfgang Gruener

Posted on 05/25/2010 1:30:55 PM PDT by dangerdoc

Ahhh. The joy of unwrapping an iPhone. Or an iPad.

The box that protects Apple’s latest creation tells us why we just sacrificed a few hundred dollars for a gadget. The precision of the fit and finish of the card board box. The flawless protective plastics that keep your iPhone and iPod safe. The glorious moment and pride you feel when you turn it on the first time. But what are we exactly proud of? Shouldn’t we feel at least some sort of guilt?

Zoom Never in the history of earth have we been able to bridge or even eliminate geographic distances as we can today. Occasionally, and thanks to the Internet, you often forget the dimensions of our planet and you could almost believe there is a way that leads to one global community, with a few unpleasant exceptions.

That is, of course, only true in the case of those things we like to see and have an interest in. In others, we look the other direction, we show little interest for the needs of others and we pretend we have no clue what you are talking about. You can find examples of such scenarios in all walks of life, but for this column, I would like to direct your attention to the dark side of gadgets, the way they are manufactured. And no, of course, it isn’t just Apple and its manufacturer.

Countless big U.S. and non U.S. corporations are guilty of exploiting human workforce and looking the other way when it’s convenient. Chinese sweatshops have been making headlines for years and a recent article published on Gizmodo truly highlighted the ghastly working conditions at Foxconn, Apple’s contract manufacturer. When there are suicide attempts at a manufacturing facility, due to stress and working conditions, you know you are much closer to a modern form of slavery than an employer who makes sure its employees are taken care of.

The National Labor Committee regularly publishes reports on working conditions globally and you will find big names such as Microsoft, Nike, Wal-Mart, Disney, Timberland, Huffy, JanSport, the Kathie Lee (Gifford) label, and Dell, all of which have been accused of unfair labor practices involving contract manufacturers.

So take Apple just as an example.

When you look at the iPhone, you most likely see the design talent of industrial designers, you see the ideas that went into the device, you may think about the patents that enabled and protect this device, you may see the vision of Steve Jobs glorified in this one small handheld. But we really don’t see how this device was made. It was made in a factory that employees 20-something year olds, some of who get paid only $130 a month at less than the Chinese minimum wage of about 55 cents. Some are working 98 hours per week, are under permanent surveillance, by cameras and co-workers, are not allowed to talk during work hours.

Microsoft recently came under fire for having its mice manufactured in sweatshops by 15 and 16 year old teenagers who work 15 hour days, 6 days a week for 52 cents per hour. They have to assemble 2000 Microsoft mice per shift.

In factories near Hong Kong, workers in such factories reportedly lose 40,000 fingers on the job every year, due to unsafe manufacturing equipment, according to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Consumer groups claim that companies consistently try to cheat their employees out of earned wages, do not provide health benefits and expose their workers to toxic materials like lead, cadmium and mercury. Here in the U.S. we are worried about baby bottles that may carry a potentially unsafe material and lead in toys. But we don’t care about those who assembled those products. Of course, Wal-Mart is the posterchild of suspected child labor violations.

The company is believed to import more than $10 billion of goods from China every year and you would have no trouble finding questionable working conditions. Take the Guangzhou Huanya Gift, for example, which describes itself as being "among the top three Christmas ornament producers in mainland China." 8000 workers in the factory have to deal with grueling working conditions that reportedly violate every single Chinese labor law: 10-15 hour shifts, seven days per week, 30 days in a row without a day off. Workers are required to work at least 84.5 hours per week, while only being paid for 77 hours. According to the National Labor Committee, at least half of the employee base “are routinely at the factory 105.25 hours a week and working 95 hours, including 55 hours of overtime, which exceeds China's legal limit by 562%. Any working daring to take a Sunday off will be docked 2.5 days' wages as punishment.”

Apple has been consistently in the crosshairs of human rights groups for having its products manufactured by Foxconn, which employs about 400,000 people and assembles products for other companies such as HP, Dell and Intel as well. What makes Foxconn a standout is not just the fact that it manufactures Mac minis or iPods and iPads, but the fact that there have been more than three dozen suicide attempts with seven confirmed deaths in recent months. Foxconn apparently has hired Buddhist monks as counselors to help. Perhaps they should think about changing their work conditions?

Of course, it is always difficult to judge a situation in a different culture, but there is clearly something wrong with the picture of workers clearly suffering on the one side of the globe and a buy-and-throw-away society on the other. Add to this scenario not just a somewhat ignorant pride when unboxing a new gadget, but those individuals who purchase those gadgets and subsequently think it is funny to walk out the store and keep smashing it on the sidewalk to find out how much it takes to destroy the device.

So, are we guilty of supporting an economy that can get away with operating a gigantic slavery machine? Of course we are, as consumers we keep fueling this machine. However, as so often, you can easily claim there is nothing you can do as an individual and calling for a boycott of buying Apple, Microsoft, Dell or Wal-Mart products is clearly not the solution. However, corporate responsibility should be a global effort. Yes, I do understand that manufacturing cost is a big deal and of course you give the contract to the company that does it for the lowest cost. And there is a whole chain of factors that favors low cost (and is willing to accept such work conditions), ranging from the companies themselves, the supply chain, unforgiving investors and consumers. But there needs to be a limit.

There needs to be a motivation for Microsoft, Apple, Wal-Mart and others to skip manufacturers that earn their money with outrageous working conditions, which, in part creates profits for the Apples and Microsofts as well. Ads a global society, we need to learn to honor the ethics that go into manufacturing and put a value on them. How proud can you be of a product that was built in a work environment I described above?

At least as far as I am concerned, I would like to know that the “incredible price” of the iPad was achieved through Apple’s innovation and not on the shoulders of severely underpaid workers and an hazardous work environment in a factory on the other side of the world. That whole thought puts Apple’s impressive profit margins into an entirely differently light as well.

Perhaps we all should be a bit more conscious and less selfish about our global society.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: communismkills; globaleconomy; iphone; maccult
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To: Carley
You were saying ...

Sheesh I sure hope I don’t get traded in for a newer model.

Well, I hope you do know that's why they're putting them on sale -- there's a new model right around the corner ... :-) They're clearing out the channels so that they'll be empty just before the new model arrives.

41 posted on 05/25/2010 2:15:44 PM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: dangerdoc
I wonder how many liberals used their $400 iPhone to write a diatribe about how Obama should kill the space program and divert NASA funds to more "humane" endeavors.

-PJ

42 posted on 05/25/2010 2:16:02 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ("Comprehensive" reform bills only end up as incomprehensible messes.)
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To: dangerdoc

No. Next question.


43 posted on 05/25/2010 2:16:14 PM PDT by TexasNative2000 (Chuck Norris wears Jack Bauer pajamas.)
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To: dangerdoc

I don’t own an iPhone, so I guess I have no reason to feel guilty.


44 posted on 05/25/2010 2:16:21 PM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: devane617

LOVE LOVE LOVE my IPHONE. My grown son likes to try to make me feel guilty.... but it doesn’t work. NOT GUILTY! Love my iphone, mac pc.. although I can do everything I need to do on my iphone!


45 posted on 05/25/2010 2:18:24 PM PDT by JFC
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To: Loud Mime
I wouldn’t attribute care for others as liberal.

Right, because that would be ridiculous, since liberalism is responsible for a huge proportion of human suffering in the world.

Here I will speak for myself: I am willing to pay an extra $100 for my future I-Pad if it is made in the U.S.A.

Good for you. I am not, and the difference would probably be quite a bit more than $100 anyway.

I want alternatives to Chinese-made goods. I buy Newbalance shoes (if they are USA-made), but run out of options quickly.

Then start making goods. You do not have the "right" to have options provided to you.

By the way, those sweat shop workers would NOT be better off if we pulled our manufacturing. They would probably have to revert to subsistence agriculture, which is NOT a better living than the factories in question.

Free trade is good for America and good for the world.

46 posted on 05/25/2010 2:20:07 PM PDT by xjcsa (Ridiculing the ridiculous since the day I was born.)
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To: kbennkc
I like the recent radio ads for Motel 6:

"Hi! This is Tom Bodett for Motel 6. Remember when there was only one ring tone, and it sounded like the "telephone?"

-PJ

47 posted on 05/25/2010 2:20:26 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ("Comprehensive" reform bills only end up as incomprehensible messes.)
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To: svcw

I have the 3G, but only paid $99 for it.
Its a great phone.

ME too. This is my second one!


48 posted on 05/25/2010 2:21:26 PM PDT by JFC
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To: Loud Mime
Here in SoCal are loads of people who would love such a job.

You can get more than $10 per day on unemployment or welfare. Unless maybe you're talking about illegals.

49 posted on 05/25/2010 2:22:00 PM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: Star Traveler

well maybe all those crowding our taxpayer paid expensive prisons could make themselves more useful than just making license plates.


50 posted on 05/25/2010 2:22:28 PM PDT by Aria ( "The US republic will endure until Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the people's $.")
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To: Star Traveler

Think positive. Is Japan or South Korea at some bottom dwelling wage?


51 posted on 05/25/2010 2:27:15 PM PDT by throwback ( The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Looks like a Viking Kitten!

Brave Beocat!
Hearthpet of Hradmin Moderator in whose high halls;
He slayed ten thousand DemonRats;
Whose lies and rants fell from besotted lips.

Lapkit of the Valkyrie, Shield Maidens of Valhalla;
Battlecat of a thousand tales of glorious victory;
Wielder of Thor’s Hammer;
He hurls bolts of Zot as mortal man doth cast spear and battleaxe.

Fiercest of a fearsome brood,
Broodmate of the heroes of sagas and runes yet unwrit;
But boasted of in the high halls of fame and glory,
And hissed in caves of dread and darkness.

Grandsire of all the Kits of Viking lore,
Whose sharp ears stand like spear tips;
Upraised, erect, listening for evil-sounds,
The lies that fall from lips of trolls not good.

Fangs of iron; claws of steel;
Maw dripping with the black blood of evil doers;
Terror of Trolls, ruiner of Rats, destroyer of Dims;
His muzzle darkened with evil Gore.

Now he purrs;
Brave Beocat!

52 posted on 05/25/2010 2:30:37 PM PDT by night reader (NRA Life Member since 1962)
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To: dangerdoc

I don’t buy iStuff, it all gives me the creeps. The liberals all fall over themselves to get the latest iThing, which naturally repels me.


53 posted on 05/25/2010 2:31:04 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: dangerdoc
There is no reason to feel guilty at all. You're buying a legal product (helping our economy), manufactured abroad (creating jobs for the poor), by people working jobs at wages those people are willing to accept (if they had better options, they'd go), and under conditions that people are willing to accept (ditto). Just because we wouldn't accept those conditions or wages does not mean that others wouldn't. Clearly, if the workers are not leaving under those grueling circumstances, then the job is worth the wage to them. Let us let them be free to make their own choices, without having to answer to our cultural norms. (What, is it okay now to be cultural Imperialists??)

The ONLY entity that ought to feel shame in any way is the Chinese government. Their laws and rules are being ignored by Chinese manufacturers, and it gives their country and government a bad reputation. Personally, I won't be holding my breath for them to actually act on human rights or workers' rights issues. I hope they get to it, and right quick... but I won't feel bad because a foreign government is childish and ineffective. Ours is bad enough on both counts as it is.

(By the way, I don't have an iPhone, despite my sister's protracted attempts to get me to switch. I'm still anti-Apple, and I'm curmudgeon-y enough to stay there for a while longer.)

54 posted on 05/25/2010 2:33:23 PM PDT by Teacher317 (It's Islam)
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To: dangerdoc

Ask the lib how much black ink was used to print that pretty iPhone box.


55 posted on 05/25/2010 2:40:09 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Aria
You were saying ...

well maybe all those crowding our taxpayer paid expensive prisons could make themselves more useful than just making license plates.

I hear they've already upgraded some of those prisons to processing credit card purchases for call centers ... what a deal! LOL ...

But, Steve Jobs is more discriminating than some of those calling centers are, and he would prefer poor Asian peasants to drug dealers, murderers, thieves, pimps and the like ... :-)

56 posted on 05/25/2010 2:43:34 PM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: dangerdoc
Nope, I don't feel guilty at all owning an iPhone AND an iPad. Some people just get jealous over the simplest stuff.
57 posted on 05/25/2010 3:01:44 PM PDT by GulfWar1Vet
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To: Hodar
And even then, the wages are good for the area. People travel vast distances to leave the agricultural areas to work for Foxconn.

100% correct. I work half my life in China, and this is the absolute truth. Factory work is coveted because it's ten times easier and 10 times more lucrative than farm life.

Most of the young people come from the farms, work at the big factories (yes, they jump between factories) for 5-7 years, save 90% of their income, then move back home to take over the farm but with a new tractor, or a new house. Or start their own business.

Foxconn has no shortage of eager workers.

Absolutely. For every entry-level position there are 5 applicants. And once you have a year or two experience under your belt, you get courted by other factories with bonuses, raises, and gifts.

Foxconn provides dorms for the workers, food and clothing.

Yep. It's dorm food, it's not the best, but it's not terrible either (yes, I do eat with the workers when supporting production).

I believe they sign on for several months, and get 1 day a week off.

Well, you sign up for a year to get the annual bonus, but you can leave at any time (and forgo your bonus). The bonus is usually paid out after Golden Week (Chinese new year) to encourage you to come back to work.

And you get weekends off if you want them; but the demand for production is high enough that you can take all the overtime you want, including working 7 days a week. Many do take that option for 2-3 months straight, as they an earn double their base salary working that much overtime. Allows you to earn in 5 years what normally would take 7-8 years.

The work hours are ~10hrs a day (I believe) ... but the pay is better than anything else in the area.

Typically 10 hours a day Mon - Fri, but that includes your 30 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks. So it's a 45 hour work-week. And yes, it's better than working on the farm in manual labor.

58 posted on 05/25/2010 3:14:33 PM PDT by PugetSoundSoldier (Indignation over the Sting of Truth is the defense of the indefensible)
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To: dangerdoc

I love my IPhone but I dislike Apples aggressive conrol of what software operates on it.As a result its the Only Apple product I will be buying.


59 posted on 05/25/2010 3:33:10 PM PDT by puppypusher
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To: svcw
"I have the 3G, but only paid $99 for it. Its a great phone."

I have a 3G too, since about week 2 of its life as a product. Fabulous machine, and it's served me well around the world. Of course, I'll be dumping it like a hot rock for the new one, though! ;-)
60 posted on 05/25/2010 4:19:30 PM PDT by RightOnTheLeftCoast (Obama: running for re-election in '12 or running for Mahdi now? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi])
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