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- Communist China
- Rep: 130
Re: Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China
Would things be better for these workers if Apple wasn't there? And would conditions in China be better if Chinese factory workers made arbitrarily higher wages relative other labor's value in China? You'd create a privileged class, but you wouldn't make the country or the people less poor. Come on guys, rational people think at the margin.
If you want to understand this issue, and sweatshops in general, Forbes had a pretty good take on it with lots of Paul Krugman quotes for the liberally-inclined: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall … facturing/
Re: Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China
I don't know what I'm surprised by more, that you're defending it, or that Forbes is running a pro sweatshop, slave-wages article. 
It's kind of like Erin Burnett's stupid comment, "If China were to revalue its currency or China is to start making, say, toys that don't have lead in them or food that isn't poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up, and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up, too. So I would say China is our greatest friend right now."
Trying to cheaply justify why slave wages is good doesn't make it right, it just shows people the true nature of greed. If only Mark Twain were alive today...
China is changing and soon they are going to have to start paying their employees more... And Apple and all the other companies will simply pick up and move to a third world country they can exploit poor workers.
If people want to boycott them, good for them.
- Communist China
- Rep: 130
Re: Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China
You can call it slave wages but it isn't. They make more doing this than they could otherwise, and thus choose to. If you shut down Apple's factories there you'd be condemning those people to greater poverty.
Re: Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China
It is slave wages when there is no other opportunity, they're kept in barracks on company property and the companies are exploiting their position.
Chinese workers are demanding fair wages and protection. Apple (among others) is feeding into the problem by taking advantage of it. They aren't there for the good of the Chinese people. Not at all. The Chinese Middle class is growing. Standards in labor are going to rise. And these companies will be leaving China soon for cheaper labor and they won't give two shits about whatever destruction they leave behind or the poverty they leave these workers in. Basically, these workers are screwed no matter what. And Apple isn't doing anything to help them, just picking their bones. Microsoft does it, too.
If this is all about concern of the impoverished Chinese worker, why aren't these companies pressuring China to do something about it?
This is exactly how these companies want America to look.
Re: Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China
But that's the American way. That's American democracy at work. We have to show the Chinese the way of American pride. By paying them nickles to work to the bone.
And do Americans care? Nope, as long as they get their next iPad.
"Where would America be without it?"
Same place as always. Fat cats just would make $2.9 billion rather than $3 billion. Big deal.
