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[Pholus]

16. As long as the Chinese workers are all happy I guess. Again, I point to Scheer.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/apples_china_comes_home_to_haunt_us_20120216/

As far as the Forbes article:

1) If I trusted everything Forbes wrote, I'd believe the 1% are the "Job Creators who should not be taxed."

2) The Forbes article merely uses as a source your original reference, convieniently filing off the references to the Fair Labor Association. Oh wait, they left the acronym FLA in a quote at the end. I have raised my issues with FLA in several threads and have yet to see them disputed. FLA has some image problems of their own.

3) I dispute the assertion in the article that it is necessary to go through sweatshops to get from "feudal peasantry to the sunlit uplands of 21 st century." That's merely the best rationalization the author could find.

4) Put this all in context ala Scheer. China, in the end, is appealing to US companies because it is the perfect blend of authoritarianism and capitalism. Poverty to motivate a workforce and rules to keep them compliant and productive. The people working these factories make a good wage but live like dogs because they love and support their families and it's the best opportunity they have. All so we get 10% off at the Best Buy or the Apple store. If you think for a moment that the assault on our lives that comes both economically and politically right now is not part of a process to make us more like China rather than making China more like us, you have not been looking past the elegant, sleek screen and nifty interface of your latest foxconn produced doo-dad. Once the social safety net is removed, we'll be in the same situation as the Chinese workers and making the same choices for the same desperate reasons.

5) And as far worrying about Apple being treated unfairly compared to other companies, it's for a pretty good reason (coming from Mike Daisey): In the tech market, only Apple generates so much hype and sales that their factory lines are forced into crisis modes for a good part of each year. Every new i-gadget is the result of a factory line having to CRACK DOWN to meet the incredibly high demand. That makes them a bit more motivated to ask for exceptionally long shifts compared to other companies rather than expand a workforce and provide MORE opportunity for the Chinese workers.