Apple's Chinese labourers get 1.6 per cent of iPad loot - report

[FarCenter]

As Apple desperately tries to repaint itself as a caring company when it comes to workers’ rights, news has emerged that employees in its suppliers’ Chinese factories get just $8 of the $499 sale price of each iPad 2.

Several news sources cite a Korea Daily report which claims that, based on average salaries, workers in the region get a 1.6 per cent slice of the pie, while Apple creams off $150 or around 30 per cent of the tablet’s retail price.

The figures are thrown into particularly stark contrast given that workers in Apple supplier factories in South Korea take home a much larger wedge - $34 per unit or 6.8 per cent of the sales price, according to the report.

The OECD’s South Korean representative, Kim Ki-jun, reportedly urged local businesses in the region to focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. He added that while tech giants will always locate manufacturing in regions with low labour costs, they could do more to reinvest their profits in said regions, according to Taiwanese news site WantChinaTimes.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2012/02/15/apple_ipad_foxconn_workers_eight_dollars/

[malaise]

1. Marx was correct

Read the Labour Theory of Value

[FarCenter]

3. Collecting "rents" from intellectual property is the place to be these days.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

11. Ironically, the Chinese communist government would never allow them to unionize.

And pleasee, no would-be rebuttals about them being quasi-capitalists. Mao and the rest would never have allowed the workers to escape the ironfist.

[Brickbat]

2. If anyone thinks it's only Apple that's doing this, they're fooling themselves. If it says "Made in

China," someone's getting exploited and abused along the line.

[FarCenter]

5. If the alternative is working dawn to dusk at subsistance farming, Foxconn may not be too bad

Consider what other opportunities Chinese workers may have. About half are still in agricultural work.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

6. Disgusting.

If its not "too bad" then you apply for the job. This is the same garbage I hear Libertarians spout off all the time. "HEY AT LEAST THEY HAVE A JOB!!!"

[FarCenter]

9. If I had to choose between working in a rice paddy and assembling iPads, I'd assemble iPads

Bear in mind that global unemployment was 210 million in 2010. That is a number unemployed that is considerably larger than the US total workforce.

GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT TRENDS 2011
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_150440.pdf

[Zalatix]

10. At least the rice paddy workers are eating.

Fewer Chinese are having problem putting food on the table than Americans.

[FarCenter]

13. Many Chinese peasants faced starvation as recently as '88

Many older Chinese remember the Great Starvation of 1959-1961.

[Zalatix]

15. And nowadays it has come to this.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/more-americans-chinese-t-put-food-table-132752601.html

More Americans than Chinese can’t put food on the table
By Zachary Roth | The Lookout – Fri, Oct 14, 2011

The number of Americans who lack access to basic necessities like food and health care is now higher than it was at the peak of the Great Recession, a survey released Thursday found. And in a finding that could worsen fears of U.S. decline, the share of Americans struggling to put food on the table is now three times as large as the share of the Chinese population in the same position.

The United States' Basic Index Score, a Gallup measure of access to necessities, fell to 81.4 in September--even lower than the 81.5 mark it reached in February and March, 2009. The recession officially ended in June of that year, but the halting recovery hasn't given a sustained boost to the number of Americans able to provide for themselves. The government reported last month that a record number of Americans is living in poverty.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

17. Great.

Unfortunately you don't have the slightest clue about doing either one so your perspective is a little skewed.

[Brickbat]

7. "May not be too bad."

Wow. Just...wow.

[Dead_Parrot]

16. I'm pretty sure it's only Apple creaming $150 off the top per unit. nt

[raouldukelives]

4. Yep, it ain't just Apple.

Everything Made in China is tainted. I think Apple makes an easy target because of the obvious success of the corporation combined with the persona that developed around them that they were somehow more hip & compassionate than your average company. Which is of course a sad joke. They like so many others are only in it for the short term and care nothing for horrible abuses against powerless employees or long range environmental issues.
Until we can all adjust our spending and investing habits to actually put our money where our mouth is and live as "progressive liberals" these stories will have to do and my hope is more people can become aware of what they are supporting when they trade a belief in human rights for a shiny gadget.

[FarCenter]

14. iPad Disassembly and assembly in under 3 minutes!

http://www.iphonemodding.com/forum/showthread.php?3586-iPad-Disassembly-and-assembly-in-under-3-minutes!

Two minutes seems about right. But you also have to add people that ensure the flow of parts to assembly and who package the assembled units. Maybe 3 minutes in all for the final assembly factory.

Plus, there is also labor in making some of the parts in China. But there is probably more labor in things like the trouchscreen/LCD/backlight assembly, and that probably comes as a unit from South Korea or Taiwan.