Chinese Workers Poisoned While Making IPhone

[quote name='UncleBob']If Apple or Walmart turned a new leaf today, there would just be some other company that would come in and fill the market for cheap, poisonous goods.

If consumers turned a new leaf, there would be no market to fill.[/QUOTE]

That ain't going to happen.

The only way to stop hazardous working conditions is tough government regulations. IE if you want to do business in America, you need to prove to auditors that your goods are not the product of hazardous working conditions.

This would have the added benefit of cutting down on incidents such as the infamous defective Chinese drywall disasters. All too often people forget that this is not just a moral issue - recklessness also carries a price.
 
The Foxconn suicide story is so ridiculously overblown. In fact, it's completely wrong. The suicide rate at Foxconn this year so far, which has indeed been much worse then years past, is currently 2.25 suicides per 100,000 people. In the US the rate is 10.9 suicides per 100,000. Yeah, it's not a full year yet, but Foxconn is on a rate to end up with a suicide rate much lower then the US. Let's not even speak of Montana.

This story has people frothing at the mouth, but the facts show that Foxconn, which is a massive, massive company (400,000 employees at their main plants) is far safer, from a risk of suicide standpoint, then living in the US. Perhaps, in order to save lives, we should all move to the Foxconn factory in China?

Frankly, this fact has me highly skeptical of other anti-Foxconn stories. Everyone seems to want Foxconn to be an evil empire and want that, regardless.

EDIT: I also think there's a crowd out there that wants Apple to be seen as an evil empire, and that's a motivator for the blow-up of this story as well. Which is also stupid since Foxconn, as you can imagine given their size, manufacturers products for other US companies as well such Dell, Microsoft, etc. Every story seems to frontline Apple as the "culprit". Of course, given the above facts, there's no reason to call them a culprit even if they were the only company with products being manufactured by Foxconn.
 
Wikipedia has a nice list of suicide rates by country. Let's see which countries Foxconn is doing better then:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

Currently they are better then Tajikistan and 84 other countries (though the stats are from different years). I suppose by years end that could change. Maybe by the end of the year they'll be pushing more daisies then Columbia? Republic of Macedonia?

One things for sure. I'm moving to Haiti! Umm....
 
[quote name='crunchewy']Frankly, this fact has me highly skeptical of other anti-Foxconn stories. Everyone seems to want Foxconn to be an evil empire and want that, regardless.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. I'm sure Foxconn is a great place to work at, all over the world the Chinese are known for the high value they place on human rights and strictly enforced labor environment regulations. I'm also sure American companies would never exploit third-world labor by using shell corporations to do their dirty work. No, everything you said makes perfect sense.
 
[quote name='crunchewy']The Foxconn suicide story is so ridiculously overblown. In fact, it's completely wrong. The suicide rate at Foxconn this year so far, which has indeed been much worse then years past, is currently 2.25 suicides per 100,000 people. In the US the rate is 10.9 suicides per 100,000. Yeah, it's not a full year yet, but Foxconn is on a rate to end up with a suicide rate much lower then the US. Let's not even speak of Montana.

This story has people frothing at the mouth, but the facts show that Foxconn, which is a massive, massive company (400,000 employees at their main plants) is far safer, from a risk of suicide standpoint, then living in the US. Perhaps, in order to save lives, we should all move to the Foxconn factory in China?

Frankly, this fact has me highly skeptical of other anti-Foxconn stories. Everyone seems to want Foxconn to be an evil empire and want that, regardless.

EDIT: I also think there's a crowd out there that wants Apple to be seen as an evil empire, and that's a motivator for the blow-up of this story as well. Which is also stupid since Foxconn, as you can imagine given their size, manufacturers products for other US companies as well such Dell, Microsoft, etc. Every story seems to frontline Apple as the "culprit". Of course, given the above facts, there's no reason to call them a culprit even if they were the only company with products being manufactured by Foxconn.[/QUOTE]

In a city you would have various reason for suicide, relationship, money, health, etc. The rate isnt high but it is alarming if they committing sucide for the same reason. If 10 people in a city of 400,000 committed suicide for the same reason, than it is a huge issue.

Also this is only factoring people who committed suicide at work. If they die outside they are not going to be reported.

As for apple, I completely agree. Microsoft, HP, Dell, and probably every major brand has something produce with Foxconn. Apple is taking more heat since they are trying to make as many iPad as possible since they are selling like hotcake.
 
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