Comments on: The dark side of shiny Apple products
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- by sjc_1 January 29, 2012 11:56 AM EST
Profound statement, they could make iPhones here using automation, but that would require investment and trim profit margins.
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Spoken like a true capitalist. Automate and put 400,000 people out of work. Besides if this could be automated, it would lower prices and increase profit margins.
Take GM, GM was producing 8 cars/employee in 1955. In 2009 GM was domestically producing 27 cars per employee. GM made 4,477,000 cars and trucks in US factories in 1955. To do so, it employed about 555,000 people domestically. In 2009, GM sold 2,084,000 cars in the US. To accomplish that required 77,000 US employees. This was accomplished by automation, not shipping jobs overseas. It no longer requires a single worker, that didn't finish high school, to sit and put lug nuts on the right front wheel of a car 8 hours a day. - Reply to this comment
- I think Apple should be picked here. No they are not the only ones who use these factories. But they obviously benefit the most by looking at the huge pile of money they take in. Do not tell me this is anything but greed. Other do not profit nearly as much and that is the difference between Apple and the rest. When people put Apple on a pedestal for being better. Its very much a wake up call when that is not the case. What is even worse is anyone who sticks up for Apple on this one. Denial anyone?
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- For anyone interested, just wanted to turn your attention to a resource that may prove helpful for a better understanding of what goes on in such factories, and why workers around the world "choose" to work there. I'm the "as told to" author of Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skin: Diary of a Chinese Garment Factory Girl on Saipan, the only first-hand account of sweatshop conditions on US Commonwealth of Saipan; Currently being used as a text for Women's Studies course at Cal State Fullerton and at least one other University in the northeast.
Many of the conditions that people associate with Chinese factories were happening on US soil on the US Commonwealth island of Saipan. I lived there for 5 years, and while writing this book. More details here: http://www.saipanfactorygirl.com - Reply to this comment
- did anyone ask the workers if they would rather be in China and working, or in Detroit surrounded by crime, danger and lawlessness, and unemployed, waiting for the check to come in the mail. Today, it is far easier to open a successful business in China than it is here. They are looking toward the stars, space travel, moon bases, and what are we talking about ? sadly the far Left has nearly but us in reverse, as a state in decline. CBS we need more stories about the loss of Billions on socialist programs that have only produced negative results. There is a reason that smrt money goes to China,and not here.
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- When I first saw this story earlier this morning, I was so shocked that I had to log on and read it again in its entirety. I cannot yet comprehend how this is being allowed to happen in this day and age. Our economy in America is stagnant as the result of labor unions with outrageous wage and benefit demands and yet everything we use on a daily basis is produced by other countries where such horrendous labor practices are an everyday practice? I'm at a total loss as to how this cycle of business can be reversed, if it can, but thank you to Mr. Daisey for bringing it to the forefront and making us all aware of the inequity and injustice that exists in the consumer addicted environment we all live in.
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- This article shows why America cannot compete in the Global market.
Maybe Solyndra, evergreen energy, Ener1 or Amonix would survive if they had
workers like the Chinese, Obama signed off on them all and if they are not bankrupt yet it is only a matter of time til all taxpayer money has been wasted. - Reply to this comment
- If only our Mexican neighbor could produce a similar Foxconn company in their country, maybe we would not have an immigration problem...
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- This offers an excellent opportunity to evaluate the conscience of American liberals, who constitute the bulk of Apple's customer base. Pure capitalism says that they will continue to buy from Apple, caring only about the cost of the products they buy. I hope that instead they boycott Apple, choosing to pay more to buy their electronics from US manufacturers who treat their employees far more fairly. I suspect that liberals are feckless, and will continue to ignore these facts, but I hope that I am wrong. The beginning of a new America n manufacturing will only occur when our people insist on paying more to ensure fair treatment of workers producing their goods. It's time to decide.
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- 18 in 400,000 workers commit suicide, hmmmmm, did CBS check the suicide rate in the US with the NIMH? That would be 11 in 100,000 (uh, 44 in 400,000). Maybe CBS did check, but it would have been incovenient to this story.
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- This shows the power in the grips of tech companies and products on our lives either as users of the products or as workers at the factory.
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