'You know where the roof is"- Ouch!

[n2doc]

[YOY]

1. Have some Chinese workers been killing themselves lately?

I missed it if so.

[ljm2002]

2. Yes. n/t

[n2doc]

3. There were a series of them at the factory where Apple's products are made

One report

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/technology/companies/27apple.html

[alfredo]

5. If you dig into the numbers, the suicide rate at Foxconn is lower

than the national average.


From ZDnet, not an Apple fanboy:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/foremski/media-gets-its-facts-wrong-working-at-foxconn-significantly-cuts-suicide-risk/1356



Taiwanese-owned Foxconn has had seven suicides this year. That sounds like a lot, but the firm has an estimated 800,000 workers, more than 300,000 of them at a single plant in Shenzhen.

Although exact figures are hard to come by, even the most conservative estimate for China’s suicide rate is 14 per 100,000 per year (World Health Organization). In other words, Foxconn’s suicide epidemic is actually lower than China’s national average of suicides.


US suicide rates from Business Management magazine:
http://www.busmanagement.com/news/apples-steve-jobs-defends-conditions-at-foxconn/

According to the World Health Organization, the average annual suicide rate in the United States is 11.1 people per 100,000 of the population. The most recent overall US suicide statistics available are from 2005.

-----
Foxconn's rate is 10 per 100,000 workers.

China's rate is 14 per 100,000

Dell also uses Foxconn, why aren't people raising questions about them?

[n2doc]

6. Because nobody gives a damn about Dell

They are barely one step away from the anonymous black box makers one finds doing a web search for lowest price products.

Apple, on the other hand, sells "luxury", even if its products are made in the same place.

[alfredo]

7. I know, but at least Apple is addressing the issue. Read the

D8 transcript where Jobs talks about the issue.

I haven't heard Michael Dell say anything on the issue.


Suicides are tragic, and usually triggered by more than just working conditions. Because Foxconn has a better suicide rate than China and the US, this is a tempest in a teapot.

US employers don't care. If a worker off himself, all that means is that they can either eliminate his job, or hire on a new person at a lower pay rate. They can also collect on the dead peasant insurance they have on him.

[tom_paine]

4. Their overall structure is the same as ours! Our Sister Nation.

Totalitarian Capitalism - clearly both America's and "Communist" China's future.

Which just goes to show tha, where human societies are concerned, supposedly diametrically opposed philosophies can justify the EXACT SAME tyrannical structure.

Believe me, I am very happy to be living now, in what will almost certainly be known as "The Good Old Days" based on trends and the merging of China and America as Sister Nations united in one economic tyranny.

[AnArmyVeteran]

8. Are they exposing workers to toxic chemicals to cause suicides?

Or are they working their slaves to death?