"This American Life" retracts its Apple/Foxconn report

[Andrew H.]

This is really pretty surprising:

Ira writes:

I have difficult news. We've learned that Mike Daisey's story about Apple in China - which we broadcast in January - contained significant fabrications. We're retracting the story because we can’t vouch for its truth. This is not a story we commissioned. It was an excerpt of Mike Daisey's acclaimed one-man show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," in which he talks about visiting a factory in China that makes iPhones and other Apple products.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/blog...-apple-factory

[monkeyluis]

That's stand up of them. I'd like to see something like it one day though.

[HansTWN]

That is what I have been telling here all along, from my 20+ years of first hand experience on factory floors of foreign invested companies around China just like Foxconn (t (though I have never been inside Foxconn itself). And no, I don't need an interpreter who filters the answers for me, I speak, read, and write the language. These are sensationalist, overblown reports. Was all that true 20 years ago, yes. Does it reflect today's reality? Absolutely not. Do accidents happen, of course. We are talking 100s of millions of workers here. Look at the statistics. But in China today the workers are in the drivers seat. You need a job in China? Don't like your current one? Low pay, terrible working conditions? The choice is yours, you can go anywhere and they will take you -- with a 20% raise to boot. Have a claim against your employer? Hungry lawyers are waiting at the factory doors. And these days most claims are decided in favor of the workers. Still, people are lining up outside the door at Foxconn. If they are so unhappy, mistreated, why would they do that?

In most foreign invested factories workers get an average take home pay of 4-500 USD a month (including Chinese New Year bonus and over time). Compare that to just a few years ago, or compare that to Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, etc. Let's get real.

[plib]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

In most foreign invested factories workers get an average take home pay of 4-500 USD a month (including Chinese New Year bonus and over time). Compare that to just a few years ago, or compare that to Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, etc. Let's get real.

Sounds to me like the Chinese are about to get outsourced to Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, etc.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by plib

Sounds to me like the Chinese are about to get outsourced to Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, etc.

That has already started about 3 years ago and the process is accelerating. The only thing the Chinese have going for them is their sheer numbers. All those countries combined don't have 1/3 of China's population.