Quote:
Originally Posted by Fotoman
Where? Oh, I don't know. Maybe places like this one:
http://factsanddetails.com/china.php...=9&subcatid=60
Or this one:
http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/index.php
Or we could believe you instead 
Foxconn is a Taiwanese company isn't it? Would the Taiwanese people work for the wages and working conditions that the mainland Chinese people work for? I doubt it, since Taiwan has moved on economically and wouldn't be able to provide 400,000 sufficiently desperate people. |
Taiwan has very advance living standards, and thus wages are not competitive for such products, anymore. But Taiwan got there by slowly moving up, from being a shoe and textile production hub 40 years ago to a high-tech development center. Taiwan and Korea are the prime examples of how the industries have pulled these countries out of poverty. Both have no natural resources, it was just the hard work of the people the willingness of people to take risks and open factories, trading companies, etc.
And I invite you to take a trip with me. We will visit Foxconn on a Saturday (yes, when I am in China, I work Saturdays, too). When all the workers have gone home, the Taiwanese managers will still be in their offices, working. They, voluntarily, put in more than the 60 hours.
China has already gone half way. In another 10-20 years they will have caught up. Do you really think you can just snap your fingers and the laborers in the whole world will work for US wages? Then you wouldn't be looking at an extra 10 USD for your ipad. You would be looking at double the price, at least. Nobody could afford it and the companies would all go bust. Countries like China are making steady progress --- imposing 100% western standards would ruin them and you.
The workers in these factories are not being "exploited". They are getting a fair wage, very high by local standards. These wages go up every year. Working conditions and non-wage benefits are steadily increasing. If the factories had to pay western wages, nobody would be in China and the country would still be the way old Mao left it in 1979.
I am not saying everything is wonderful. There will be abuses, there will be cases of exploitation. But go to China, learn Chinese and talk the people. Almost all the people are very optimistic, they like where they are at, even compared to western countries. They have confidence where they are going. They don't need, they don't WANT your pity. By taking the current path forward, many of them will be better off than you in 15 - 20 years. And 50 million Chinese are probably better off than you right now, already.
The 400,000 people are not desperate. They are privileged. They have cell phones, good clothing, motor cycles, eat well, they can save money every month. Look at all the desperate people in the countries that have no industries. Africa comes to mind. The slums in US cities come to mind. Look at Greece. The government just borrows a lot of money, hands it all out to its citizens and then says "sorry, we can't pay back". I am sure that is a sustainable model.
There are many serious problems in China -- this is definitely not one of them.
Anyway, just my 2 cents worth. I have been in in and out of Asian factories almost daily in a number of countries since 1986. I have seen where we started off and I am seeing where we are now. I speak the local languages and I can get an unfiltered first hand view of the good and bad. How many among you have actually seen these countries? A journalist goes into a few factories at most and is looking for dirt. And I wanted to show you that it makes no sense at all to compare a current middle class American to a current middle class Chinese and decide "they are desperate". Believe who you want to, what does it matter to me? I have no agenda here. I am just contributing some real first hand experience. And "slave labor" or "400,000 desperate people" is so ridiculous and far off the mark that I had to speak up. Believe me, probably more than a 2 billion people on this earth can only dream of having a chance to be among those "400,000" desperate people at Foxconn.