Moral Issues Behind iPhone and Its Makers

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Moral Issues Behind iPhone and Its Makers

Theater Review | 'The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs'
Moral Issues Behind iPhone and Its Makers
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
Published: October 17, 2011

....
About half of all consumer electronics sold in the world today are produced at a single mammoth factory campus in Shenzhen, China, according to Mr. Daisey. His illuminating trip to this campus, the sprawling Foxconn Technology plant, forms the dramatic spine of his smart, pointed and often very funny exploration of the rise of Apple and the career and vision of Mr. Jobs, who died this month after a long battle with cancer.
....

The Foxconn campus is tightly controlled, its entrance secured by gun-wielding guards. A series of suicides at the plant several years ago made international headlines. When Mr. Daisey’s attempts to visit through official channels were rebuffed, he simply rented a car and a driver and translator, and showed up at the gates to interview workers as they emerged from their shifts.

He had to wait quite a while. As he notes, while the official Chinese workday is 8 hours, the norm at Foxconn is more like 12 and even longer when the introduction of a product is at hand. One worker died after a 34-hour shift. Some of the workers he meets are as young as 13, and because of the repetitive nature of the labor, their hands often become deformed and useless within a decade, rendering them unemployable.

[hobbit709]

1. same moral issues are behind every gadget in use today.

You think conditions are really any better in any other Chinese factories.

[abelenkpe]

3. Clothes, shoes, appliances, cheap plastic toys too.

[Atman]

2. APPLE HATERS UNITE! Pretend Dell and HP don't use the same work force!

Dell and HP make their computers with puppies and unicorns! Young virgins do the packaging and graphic design! Rainbows illuminate the production lines. Steve Jobs is Satan...Satan, who happens to give Dell and HP all of their best ideas from which to rip off.

[hobbit709]

4. you know someone will not get the sarchasm.

[left coaster]

6. The point I've seen many take issue with is not the aspect you mention..

..but, rather, that so many were trying to canonize Jobs. I don't think the major guru at Dell or HP would get the same treatment.

[Brickbat]

5. If it says "Made in China," I assume it was made without regard to environmental effects, worker

safety, labor regulations, human rights and so on. It's easier that way.

[Javaman]

7. +1 nt