Posted on 06/24/2006 1:43:00 PM PDT by wagglebee
Does your kid have an iPod?
Does he or she want one?
Don't even answer that question. Every kid in America either has one or wants one.
The demand for these little devices is amazing and so is the price, between $200-$300.
"What's wrong with that?" you ask. "Commerce is good for America. It creates jobs and stimulates the economy."
Jobs? Stimulated economy?
Do you know where your iPod was made? Do you know by whom?
The London Sunday Mail wanted to find out. It sent reporters to "iPod City," where most of the Apple music players are made.
"iPod City" is not in the Silicon Valley, by the way. It's not in the USA. It's not in the United Kingdom. It's in Longhua, China.
That's where some 200,000 Chinese laborers work to make those iPods. That's more people than live in the city of Little Rock, Ark., for example.
What are the conditions like? How about the pay?
You might think a high-tech company like Apple might care about such matters. You might think the politically correct geeks who founded the company and run it would want to ensure foreign workers were not being exploited.
Here's what the Sunday Mail found:
The iPod shuffles are made in Suzhou, Shanghai, where workers earn $100 a month. Sounds better doesn't it? Except these laborers must pay for their own food and accommodations requiring about half their salary.
Remember all this when your kid asks you for an iPod.
And remember it the next time you go shopping at Wal-Mart or some other bargain center where all the goods are made in these virtual Chinese gulags for pay just above slave wages.
And remember that Apple is just one of thousands of companies using Chinese sweatshops like those described here to manufacture expensive goods designed for the Western consumer who remains blissfully ignorant about the conditions that created that product.
Why is it that we don't tolerate the exploitation of workers in our own country but turn a blind eye to exploitation 10 times worse elsewhere?
What is happening to the American conscience and psyche that allows this kind of abuse?
How is it that the U.S. government could continue to encourage the kind of corporate greed that results in manufacturing agreements with the fascists in Beijing?
Why is it that we see no screaming headlines about the conditions of "iPod City" in the U.S. corporate establishment press?
Where is our sense of right and wrong?
Would we have so glibly accepting of imports from Nazi Germany as we are of those made in the virtual slave labor conditions of the so-called "workers paradise" in China?
No, there's a double standard that permits China, a totalitarian socialist country, to get away with abuses that would not be tolerated anywhere else in the world.
Welcome to the New World Order where we're OK with the worst kind of oppression, as long as we can't see it taking place.
You got me beat on that one then, LOL.
What they also don't tell you is what $100/mo. buys in China. I have heard that for $500/mo., you can get a luxury apartment that would cost ten times that in Manhattan. If the ratio holds true, $100/mo. might be equivalent to a an
American salary of $12k or possibly even $24k in terms of buying power.
Because Apple is owned and run by big-time Liberals like Steve Jobs, and now Al Gore. The MSM do not want to make them look bad by making this nes known. If Tom DeLay or any other prominent Pubbie ran this company, the MSM would be screaming about it more than they were about Kathy Lee Gifford's outsourced company's policies.
---An iPod is the most worthless, trivial, mind-numbing toy in the marketplace. Does that give you a clue?---
I think you're the one that needs a clue ther Amos. What doe Andy think about iPods?
And the point of the article is what? Should we not have iPods or any other modern technology device that has to be made overseas to be priced competitively?
Farah has absolutely no clue. I've been to similar factories in China and the workers (mostly female) are thrilled to have these jobs so they can earn more than they otherwise could in their villages. They save the money and then go back to buy land of their own and get married.
Oh wait, Go Pat Go.......
And for this reason I disagree with singling out Apple, it is the American economy that permits this and as you said, it is a problem with a huge number of consumer products.
See what I wrote in #27.
Gee, I stopped listening to music in 1971. That's when I discovered talk radio!
;^)
That way, instead of having housing and food, plus fifty dollars a month, they could live in a storm drain and scour the dumps for food.
Actually it's:
where we're OK with the worst kind of oppression, as long as we can't see it taking place can turn a tidy profit.
Who's Mozard?
Ummmm please explain what the problem is with consumer products.
No. I don't care. If the product does what the manufacturer claims it does and it fits my needs then it doesn't matter does it?
Here's what the Sunday Mail found:
The laborers are housed in dormitories of 100 people each;
visitors from the outside world are not permitted;
workers toil for 15 hours a day;
employees make $50 a month not even a quarter of the price of one unit;
the iPod nano is made in a five-story factory secured by police officers.
Toil?!? Joe, Joe, Joe...everytime I think you've gone off the deep end, you take it one more step. What's the average income in the local market Joe? Should they paid 'American' wages? What do you think that would do to the economy overnight Joe? From the manufacturer of the iPods in China
"In Shenzhen, our workers can earn at least 580 yuan ($72.50) a month, which is the minimum salary level fixed by the local government. Starting from this July, the basic salary will be adjusted to 700 yuan ($87.50) in line with the government's new standards," James Lee, senior vice president of Foxconn Technology, told China Daily. "It's hard to understand for many westerners but it's true that many of our workers are willing to work overtime to make more money. We don't force them to work overtime and won't allow them to work overtime for more than 20 hours a week," Lee said. The practices comply with the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct, which sets out basic labor and environmental standards for IT contractors, he explained.
The local labor department authority told China Daily that Foxconn is a leading company in the city and it has not received any complaints about it. "I don't think the government will launch a special investigation into Foxconn," the spokesperson said. However, a female worker at the factory said the working conditions were OK, but not everything was satisfactory. "We are just here to make money. Some factories are even worse," she said.
Foxconn Bristles at iPod 'Sweatshop' Charges
Find another dead horse to beat Joe. Your anti-capitalist, pro-union schtick is boring....
I mean that many of the products we use are produced in communist China in factories that basically employ slave labor.
The iPod is just a tool (or toy, if you prefer) that stores and plays music-- how does that make it "worthless, trivial and mind-numbing?"
Sheesh...
I refuse to buy Apple stuff out of principle to some degree (can't stand the libs who run it) and because there are MUCH better values in MP3/Video players on the market. I love my Archos GMINI 402 portable multimedia center: 20GB hard drive, built in USB that allows me to capture the photos from everybody's digital camera BEFORE we leave the family reunion and then pipe them into a big screen TV so everybody can enjoy them on the last day of the get together. Wired it directly into my 1998 Avalon head unit for best fidelity with an adapter from Crutchfield ($60) that I custom mounted in the center console. Everything still looks factory. The Archos hooks to your computer USB port just like a flash drive. Can move music, photos and data back and forth without any extra software. Listen to business podcasts and books on trips.
http://www.archos.com/products/pc_centric/gmini_402/index.html?country=global&lang=en
Invented the steam powered pedal steel. :)
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