iPad Assembly Line in China

[Hostile]

That is pillaging.
Don't try to make this topic more confusing.

I wish I knew what the hell this was supposed to mean.

EDIT...Or maybe I don't. Forget I even posted the comment above.

 

[MapleLeaf]

We look at the $14 a day and says wow, but their cost of living is a lot cheaper than ours. That factory is located in Shenzhen. The minimum wage there is what about to about $208 per month. If they only worked five days a week and four weeks a month, (total of 20 days) that would amount to $280. That is over 25% more than minimum wage and if it doubles in three years, it's a lot more than minimum wage.

The real question is, what is the actual cost of living there. Is minimum wage there as bad as it is here? Making minimum wage in NY wouldn't afford you a card board box to live in.

...regularly for work to outsource our products.

The reality is the conditions are horrid. Foxconn is one of the better factories, but so is PPG's and Parker Hannifin's and many others who try to return some of their profits back to the workers.

Still it is not enough. The rural areas where these migrant workers have come from is not good.

A reasonable standard of living is not attainable for the workers at these levels. They can't afford housing if the factory doesn't give them housing along with their jobs.

See the apartment complexes behind the stadium where the workers were playing soccer in the video. That's owned by Foxconn.

It's a turn of the century business model North America abandoned along with the factory towns in the 50s.

Shenzen basically has two models for wage. First is the Foxconn platform. You work to our tact time and maintain the production rate and quality and you get a set wage per day.

The other is piece work where we count up the number of widgets you move through and we pay you per piece.

The average work day is (12) hours per day and the average wage per hour (real minimum wage) is about $0.33. So as you can see there's a reason why many flock to Foxconn. It's better than average.

You can imagine working in a metal forging factory for these wages is not ideal.

The Shenzen migrant worker is not attaining a lifestyle we would recognize. They wake up, they eat, they make Ipads and eventually they die. That's it.

Very few will ever own a vehicle, some may have TVs, if you get pregnant you are in trouble, if you want to get married life is difficult.

These people are the lowest of the low, but they keep our store shelves stocked with the cheapest goods money can buy.

 

[MapleLeaf]

I'm asking because I don't know. How is this different than a sweat shop that people protest? The only thing here that amazes me is the cost of an iPad for us. In other countries they don't have our cost of living, they have huge labor forces, and can make things cheaper than we can because of what we demand.

The fact is we want products at good prices and to have workers paid more than what the product costs. That is called bankruptcy in any language.

I'm not so appalled at the prices given it happens everywhere in the world. I just wonder if this is no big deal because it is not Microsoft? I say that and I am almost certain someone can show me equal or worse conditions there.

...you should head to India and see how low grade diamonds are cut.

It will change you to see how it's done to get cheap diamond rings in North America.

 

[Zaxor]

I realize what I am going to say is not going to be popular and I debated whether to even say it...but my conscience won over my pride so I will

IF business's job is to maximize profits (mostly to please stock holders) where does everyone think these profits are going to come from?

When business's talk about exploiting a market....what is a "market" at its basic element

When business's talk of keeping expenses low... for the most part what are they talking about?

When business's talk about transference of costs...where are they transferring it too.

Greed is a terrible thing and my friends if we do not wake up soon we shall find that we have been robbed.

 

[Garland powerplay]

Dont forget China is a hard line communist country where big brother provides all and controls all. Every thing covered like a dependant or slave to the state.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

Interesting take on it.

That does not make it right however.

Exploiting the poor for their labor in these conditions, particularly to avoid taxes here, is wrong.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

Dont forget China is a hard line communist country where big brother provides all and controls all. Every thing covered like a dependant or slave to the state.

Don't forget, China is like our bank.

 

[MapleLeaf]

Dont forget China is a hard line communist country where big brother provides all and controls all. Every thing covered like a dependant or slave to the state.

...with the first part of your statement, but I do disagree with the second part to some extent.

In modern day China you get squat as a citizen. They have made the fastest shift to the free market country of any nation and there is no social netting to catch those citizens who fall through the cracks.

Ex. The sheer amount of death on the streets and abandoned alleys and country lanes for babies and the sick is unbelievable.

The amount of birth defects and chemical illness due to rapid industrialization without protection to society hasn't been seen since the days of the Industrial Revolution in England.

IMO, China provides very little to its citizens. In some ways it is more of a free market economy than what we have here in NA.

You have the freedom to make as much money as you want and as much freedom to be laying dying on the side of a country lane.

There are rural lanes still in China where healthy babies are left on the edge of the road on the grass to die. The problem was unbelievable about a dozen years ago and has slowed down somewhat, but it's still bad enough to make you shudder.

It started wtih baby girls, but as the one child policy has made girls a valuable economic commodity now the baby boys are showing up on the road and that was unheard of before.

 

[viman96]

It would take 3 months of wages for the worker making $14 per day to purchase an iPad.