Companies and Responsability

[caprica70711]

The iPhone has become one of the most successful products of all time. Despite the iPhones cost millions of people buy them, these devices make apple millions of dollars annually and is a huge part of their profits. The truth about the iPhone is it cost a fraction of its market price to make and those who assemble them have an extremely small salary and live very difficult lives. In china there are thousands of workers who work in factories but in a large assembly plant owned by foxconn there are entire buildings dedicated to manufacturing and assembling iPhones. Rows upon rows of people sit side by side in these factories assembling iPhones, sometimes working up to 18 hours many workers suffer from fatigue. Fatigue is a common problem at the foxconn assembly plant, many more serious issues exist here as well. Suicide, depression, insomnia are just some of the things that these workers face on a daily basis. With very low income workers struggle to pay for food not only for themselves but for their families, long  hours of work means workers are constantly tierd, constant demand means the workers are constantly under duress to work faster, all of these things lead to unhappy and unhealthy lives. The workers of the foxconn plant lives full of misery, depression, struggle and oppression in the name of a product that they don’t even use or profit from. First world countries around the world who use the iPhone and any other product for that matter need to start taking note of where products are made and how they are made, ignoring the problem allows for inequality of life all around the world. Next time you buy a product take note of where it comes from and do your research because when you buy something from a company you are only encouraging them to continue their miss-treatment of workers. Be responsible for your actions and realize what effects you can have across the world because anyones voice can make a change even half way across the world. Buying from social responsible is a way for all consumers to have an impact on the lives of people overseas and is also a way to show large companies what we as consumers value responsibility from a company.

 

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP

 

This is true, but also consider that all those people queuing up outside the factory would be WORSE off if the factory did not exist

 

So while Foxxcon and others could be considered unethical for using cheap labour, they are actually still helping people by providing employment and payment, nobody is forced to work there, but its an opportunity for work (albeit a shitty immoral one)

 

Also a company like Apple, makes products in such quantity that there are very few factories in the world large enough to cope with production - Apple could not simply make the iphone elswhere, as nobody else can make that many units that fast

 

Could they move production to the US? Maybe.. they have mad the Mac plant in the US, possibly can expand further, but the cost of an iPhone factory that large would cost billions, and would require a lot of expensive workers

 

 

Honestly its not necessarily a single companies fault, its exploitation of companies, corporations, entire goverments, and overall, just people

 

We as a species have let this happen

[comefightme]

There is not much we can do, really. We cannot just stop buying these phones, they are a necessity in our lives. The workers in China have no choice, without these factories, they would have no job at all. There is no lack of willing workers in China so Apple can continue paying so little for labour. Anyway, when China rises, things will get better for them

[comefightme]

It's not a responsibility problem, it's just how the world works

[ALwin]

snip

 

What about the textile/garment industry, with the accidents and deaths that workers suffered in Bangladesh a few years ago?

 

You can't always blame the company or business.  Who are the people that are driving businesses to look for cheaper labor and manufacturing costs: the Consumers!

 

Maybe we shouldn't be upgrading our phones or computers or anything every year when a new model is released.  There was a time when the electronics we bought was used until it was no longer fixable.  I grew up fiddling with AM/FM radios, along with my grandfather and if we damaged the antenna or it stopped working we'd spend time trying to repair it before going out to buy a new one.

[ALwin]

There is not much we can do, really.

 

I disagree with this statement.  There are many things we can do, but as a society or individual, many of us are unwilling to take the necessary steps.

[comefightme]

What about the textile/garment industry, with the accidents and deaths that workers suffered in Bangladesh a few years ago?

 

You can't always blame the company or business.  Who are the people that are driving businesses to look for cheaper labor and manufacturing costs: the Consumers!

I really hate how Apple constantly sells blatantly overpriced products like their macbooks and mac desktops. The prices are highly unjustified for their specs. They have a ridiculous profit margin 

[comefightme]

I disagree with this statement.  There are many things we can do, but as a society or individual, many of us are unwilling to take the necessary steps.

Exactly, no one is willing to do anything, so even if some of us wants to do something about it, no one else will help

[Guest HyppoCube]

I really hate how Apple constantly sells blatantly overpriced products like their macbooks and mac desktops. The prices are highly unjustified for their specs. They have a ridiculous profit margin 

Who gets that margin? The workers dont, we established that.

 

[ALwin]

I really hate how Apple constantly sells blatantly overpriced products like their macbooks and mac desktops. The prices are highly unjustified for their specs. They have a ridiculous profit margin 

 

Well there are some justifications for their prices, and also reasons why they keep the prices high.

1. Consumer perception, where Apple markets some of their products as luxury items.
2. A lot of their products have much better designs than their competitors.  Until recently in the past couple of years, there was hardly a laptop manufacturer who designed something that was as solid or good looking as a Macbook Pro.  The Macbook's aluminium unibody design is still one of the most well designed pieces of engineering.  And because designing something involves some artistry, it's hard to judge the value.  I may think a Picasso painting is junk, but for another person it might be valuable.

[comefightme]

Who gets that margin? The workers dont, we established that.

 

Not "we" since we are the ones buying overpriced crap and getting sucked dry by the companies, so in the end, both the people in the third world and first world are ripped off. Difference is we have much much higher income to make up for it. 

 

The only ones that benefit are the companies

[ALwin]

Who gets that margin? The workers dont, we established that.

 

 

Well, wages and sharing of profits are another matter in the world of work.  It will open up another big can of worms.

[ALwin]

I really hate how Apple constantly sells blatantly overpriced products like their macbooks and mac desktops. The prices are highly unjustified for their specs. They have a ridiculous profit margin 

 

Oh and if we break down some of the things that Apple includes in let's say a Macbook Pro, compared to a Windows laptop:

1. The Macbook Pros currently come with PCIe SSD drives. whilst unless it's an thin laptop, standard sized non Apple laptops have a good chance are using SATA SSD drives.
2. OSX is essentially free, you don't need to buy a new license with every new version.  Whereas Microsoft charges you if you want to upgrade from Windows 7 to Win 8 or above.  It's only with Win 10 where they are giving people the option to upgrade for free.  And still Microsoft has different varieties of Windows, from Home/Student, Pro, Ultimate, Enterprise whereas OSX is the same for everyone.  They don't differentiate between personal or business use.
3. The LED backlit displays of Macbook Pros have always been great, while with non Apple laptops it was only a few years ago where they started using higher quality displays.  I have TFT panels on my old ASUS laptops and I hate them.

Sure hardware specs wise, a $3000 non Apple laptop might have a better processor and GPU compared to a $3000 Macbook Pro, but (aside from gaming) if we benchmark them for other things a Macbook Pro might perform better.

 

Anyway, I'm not here to justify Apple's prices.  But in a consumer driven world, as long as there are people willing to buy...

[Guest HyppoCube]

how long do you have to work at foxxcon assembling Macbook Pro to have enough to buy one? 9 months on calories-free diet?

 

and what is work schedule? i doubht its 18 houres a day, its not like slavery duhh, i guess max 12
 

still very bad

[ALwin]

snip

 

Some old articles, so I'm not certain it reflects what might be the current situation today.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/12/12/fla-says-foxconn-still-exceeds-working-hours/

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/af799a06-6334-11e3-a87d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3xtDxwaQz

 

The problem with Foxconn is that the HQ is based in The Republic of China (Taiwan) while their factories are in The People's Republic of China (Red China).

 

These are the labour conventions that China has ratified, but how do they apply to Taiwan if the UN does not recognize it as a sovereign nation and whatever documents the PRC has signed might not be accepted by the Taiwanese.

http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:11200:0::NO:11200:P11200_COUNTRY_ID:103404

 

And as you can see here, there are several international conventions regarding "hours of work", yet none of these have been signed by either China.

http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:12000:424495751354643::::P12000_INSTRUMENT_SORT:2

[michaelocarroll007]

The iPhone has become one of the most successful products of all time. Despite the iPhones cost millions of people buy them, these devices make apple millions of dollars annually and is a huge part of their profits. The truth about the iPhone is it cost a fraction of its market price to make and those who assemble them have an extremely small salary and live very difficult lives. In china there are thousands of workers who work in factories but in a large assembly plant owned by foxconn there are entire buildings dedicated to manufacturing and assembling iPhones. Rows upon rows of people sit side by side in these factories assembling iPhones, sometimes working up to 18 hours many workers suffer from fatigue. Fatigue is a common problem at the foxconn assembly plant, many more serious issues exist here as well. Suicide, depression, insomnia are just some of the things that these workers face on a daily basis. With very low income workers struggle to pay for food not only for themselves but for their families, long  hours of work means workers are constantly tierd, constant demand means the workers are constantly under duress to work faster, all of these things lead to unhappy and unhealthy lives. The workers of the foxconn plant lives full of misery, depression, struggle and oppression in the name of a product that they don’t even use or profit from. First world countries around the world who use the iPhone and any other product for that matter need to start taking note of where products are made and how they are made, ignoring the problem allows for inequality of life all around the world. Next time you buy a product take note of where it comes from and do your research because when you buy something from a company you are only encouraging them to continue their miss-treatment of workers. Be responsible for your actions and realize what effects you can have across the world because anyones voice can make a change even half way across the world. Buying from social responsible is a way for all consumers to have an impact on the lives of people overseas and is also a way to show large companies what we as consumers value responsibility from a company.

Only problem with this is that if you dont think many other electronics companies do the same and ONLY Picking on the bigger company for doing it is dumb. Its just like everyone attacking walmart for not paying that much above minimum wage when Kmart and Target both pay Less than Walmart but no one rally's against them. There needs to be a standard set for stuff like this i agree but we also have no control over other countries they sort of have to do that on their own not saying we shouldn't help them either though its not as simple as saying everyone should have equal rights.  A country telling another country how to run usually ends in war. and the idea that everyone just stops buying stuff from These countries that produce electronics  just isnt going to happen or effect them enough to change their ways.