Quote:
Originally Posted by Hack&Lube
I'm Chinese and have family and co-workers from there. The reality is that great number of migrant workers have to send back a large chunk of their wages home to support their families so in many cases, it is not enough to get by without putting in an excessive amount of overtime.
Anyway, these conditions are endemic all over China and developing countries which are industrializing. I have nothing against monotonous and assembly line work. All of those things exist here in the first world as well. I do have problems with child labor, poor treatment, and overly harsh discipline in those conditions however.
Apple is just getting picked on because of three factors:
1. They are the biggest player right now (larger operating cash balance than the entire U.S. Treasury)
2. They are making more money than everyone else and can afford to experiment or try to make a difference or set a standard for others
3. The image and branding that Apple has historically built for itself and their users as "different" from the big corporate stereotypes of it's competitors in the past
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And thank goodness the video showed that none of those things are actually happening. Of course you can say that the factory knew the cameras were going to be there, and they knew of the inspection that occurs during the story by the 3rd party organization. It's also mentioned however that regardless of how much notice the factories are given for a visit, in a community of that size it's almost impossible to totally hide things like child labour and inhumane conditions.
I understand the argument that Apple makes the most money so they should be the ones to fix it, I just don't totally agree. At what profit level do companies have to start caring about the conditions of their assembly line? If Samsung continues to release kick-ass products, do they have to start caring too?