These things all come out in the wash in a free market. If you pay people much less than the value they produce (“exploit” them), you leave yourself open to having them taken by a competitor.
Sometimes those who accuse others of exploiting the poor are themselves doing it for political gain.
This is a wilfully ignorant perspective on appalling Chinese labour conditions. You claim not to know how much Chinese workers get paid or how many hours they work per shift. I can tell you the average worker in these factories works well over 12 hours a day for a lot less than $5.
Apple is drowning in profit yet instead of providing humane working conditions for their Chinese workers you know what they spend money on? Suicide nets at the bottom of their buildings to stop employees jumping out of windows to kill themselves. You think this repugnant situation is OK as long as the government isn’t involved? Ridiculous.
Jeff, how much do you think Apple should pay them? $10 an hour, 20?, 100? Should you be the decider? “Appalling” by what standard? Did you know that the suicide rate at Foxcomm was LOWER than the national average, even during that horrendous spate of suicides? Did you consider that China has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and that those suicides might have other factors involved? You also didn’t know that Foxcomm significantly raised salaries after that horrible tragedy. So, get your facts straight, and more importantly, stop dropping context.
As long as *force* isn’t involved, and individuals are free either to work there or not to work there, $1 per hour is still $1 per hour more that the person gets as a direct result of working there and which he would not be earning if he chose not to work there.
Eduardo, you seem to be aggressively arguing against better working conditions for Chinese workers. What a nice fellow you must be. How about paying $1 per hour for a 10 hour day for example? You would consider this rate appalling if it were offered to you or someone in your family yet it is too good for Chinese workers? My point is not that Chinese factory workers should be paid as much as workers in developed countries, just that they shouldn’t have to work in concentration camps.
You say they “Shouldn’t have to,” but why should the Chinese get better treatment than everyone else?
Every developed country went through the same path from Farm to Factory to Office. England was first, then the US and Europe 25 years later. And back then it was not “Put on this hair net, take a seat, and put this iPad together,” it was “Stand by this scaling hot fire and shovel coal for the next 12 hours, then carry all those iron bars over there.”
Man’s knowledge of Economics is not perfect. Just like we don’t know how to cure cancer, we don’t know how to make a country rich without going the Farm-Factory-Office path. It’s not ideal, but it’s also not discrimination against the Chinese.
6 Comments to “Yaron Answers: Is Apple exploiting Chinese workers?”
These things all come out in the wash in a free market. If you pay people much less than the value they produce (“exploit” them), you leave yourself open to having them taken by a competitor.
Sometimes those who accuse others of exploiting the poor are themselves doing it for political gain.
This is a wilfully ignorant perspective on appalling Chinese labour conditions. You claim not to know how much Chinese workers get paid or how many hours they work per shift. I can tell you the average worker in these factories works well over 12 hours a day for a lot less than $5.
Apple is drowning in profit yet instead of providing humane working conditions for their Chinese workers you know what they spend money on? Suicide nets at the bottom of their buildings to stop employees jumping out of windows to kill themselves. You think this repugnant situation is OK as long as the government isn’t involved? Ridiculous.
Jeff, how much do you think Apple should pay them? $10 an hour, 20?, 100? Should you be the decider? “Appalling” by what standard? Did you know that the suicide rate at Foxcomm was LOWER than the national average, even during that horrendous spate of suicides? Did you consider that China has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and that those suicides might have other factors involved? You also didn’t know that Foxcomm significantly raised salaries after that horrible tragedy. So, get your facts straight, and more importantly, stop dropping context.
As long as *force* isn’t involved, and individuals are free either to work there or not to work there, $1 per hour is still $1 per hour more that the person gets as a direct result of working there and which he would not be earning if he chose not to work there.
Eduardo, you seem to be aggressively arguing against better working conditions for Chinese workers. What a nice fellow you must be. How about paying $1 per hour for a 10 hour day for example? You would consider this rate appalling if it were offered to you or someone in your family yet it is too good for Chinese workers? My point is not that Chinese factory workers should be paid as much as workers in developed countries, just that they shouldn’t have to work in concentration camps.
You say they “Shouldn’t have to,” but why should the Chinese get better treatment than everyone else?
Every developed country went through the same path from Farm to Factory to Office. England was first, then the US and Europe 25 years later. And back then it was not “Put on this hair net, take a seat, and put this iPad together,” it was “Stand by this scaling hot fire and shovel coal for the next 12 hours, then carry all those iron bars over there.”
Man’s knowledge of Economics is not perfect. Just like we don’t know how to cure cancer, we don’t know how to make a country rich without going the Farm-Factory-Office path. It’s not ideal, but it’s also not discrimination against the Chinese.