Quote:
Originally Posted by Hack&Lube
You can say all you want in keynote speeches and press releases. It doesn't translate to real world results. Apple is still hiding the list of the majority of their supply chain and there is zero monitoring or auditing of the environmental policies of that chain. They are probably not actually green at all, despite saying so.
Furthermore, they have no incentive to improve working conditions at Foxconn. As long as demand remains high, lowering costs and speeding up production are the only metrics that matter to them.
Apple is just being singled out in the press because of it's high profile and higher margins. Almost every consumer product we buy is made in China, many of them in conditions just as, or even more hazardous and deplorable than the stories we are getting out of Foxconn. The fact is that the Apple jobs are still in demand and Chinese migrant workers flood to Chengdu and Shenzhen to get them. It's still safer than working in a Chinese coal mine.
If our western companies actually started exerting any kind of ethical or environmental oversight for real, the costs of our products would soar and the release time tables would grow to extraordinary lengths. It's the nature of the beast. Sadly, the percentage of people who would really vote with their wallet based on ethical concerns is extremely low. Everybody just wants their latest gadget as soon as possible and at the lowest price possible. For them, out of sight is out of mind.
There is no need to demonize or defend Apple here. They are as guilty as almost every other large consumer goods manufacturer in the world that exploits cheap labor and lax environmental policies in developing countries.
There is a list of most trustworthy companies for clean-capitalism being awarded by a new think tank. I'm not sure if it actually means anything.
http://www.trustacrossamerica.com/index.shtml
http://www.trustacrossamerica.com/do...yCompanies.pdf |
I can agree with pretty much everything here. I don't know nearly enough about the environmental impact of electronics to say Apple is making a difference one way or another, but I think that public pressure made them do something (I obviously don't know how significant that something is).
It reminds me of the oil debate. People will preach loud and hard about getting the world off oil, but in the end I imagine almost nobody is prepared to live in a world without it.
As angry as stories like this make people, I highly doubt they are willing to vote with their dollars against it. There will be those who would be fine paying an extra $50 if it meant the workers conditions were improved, but I feel that number would be quite low.