iPhones built by kids for 70 cents/H

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-child-labor-2012-1

We love our iPhones and iPads.

We love the prices of our iPhones and iPads.

We love the super-high profit margins of Apple, Inc., the maker of our iPhones and iPads.

And that's why it's disconcerting to remember that the low prices of our iPhones and iPads — and the super-high profit margins of Apple — are only possible because our iPhones and iPads are made with labor practices that would be illegal in the United States.

And it's also disconcerting to realize that the folks who make our iPhones and iPads not only don't have iPhones and iPads (because they can't afford them), but, in some cases, have never even seen them.

This is a complex issue. But it's also an important one. And it's only going to get more important as the world's economies continue to become more intertwined.

(And the issue obviously concerns a lot more companies than Apple. Almost all of the major electronics manufacturers make their stuff in China and other countries that have labor practices that would be illegal here. One difference with Apple, though, is the magnitude of the company's profit margin and profits. Apple could afford to pay its manufacturers more or hold them to higher standards and still be extremely competitive and profitable.)

Last week, PRI's "This American Life" did a special on Apple's manufacturing. The show featured (among others) the reporting of Mike Daisey, the man who does the one-man stage show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," and The NYT's Nicholas Kristof, whose wife's family is from China.

You can read a transcript of the whole show here. Here are some details:

The Chinese city of Shenzhen is where most of our "crap" is made. 30 years ago, Shenzhen was a little village on a river. Now it's a city of 13 million people — bigger than New York.
Foxconn, one of the companies that builds iPhones and iPads (and products for many other electronics companies), has a factory in Shenzhen that employs 430,000 people.
There are 20 cafeterias at the Foxconn Shenzhen plant. They each serve 10,000 people.
One Foxconn worker Mike Daisey interviewed, outside factory gates manned by guards with guns, was a 13-year old girl. She polished the glass of thousands of new iPhones a day.
The 13-year old said Foxconn doesn't really check ages. There are on-site inspections, from time to time, but Foxconn always knows when they're happening. And before the inspectors arrive, Foxconn just replaces the young-looking workers with older ones.
In the first two hours outside the factory gates, Daisey meets workers who say they are 14, 13, and 12 years old (along with plenty of older ones). Daisey estimates that about 5% of the workers he talked to were underage.
Foxconn home

Jordan Pouille

The dormitories.
Daisey assumes that Apple, obsessed as it is with details, must know this. Or, if they don't, it's because they don't want to know.
Daisey visits other Shenzhen factories, posing as a potential customer. He discovers that most of the factory floors are vast rooms filled with 20,000-30,000 workers apiece. The rooms are quiet: There's no machinery, and there's no talking allowed. When labor costs so little, there's no reason to build anything other than by hand.
A Chinese working "hour" is 60 minutes — unlike an American "hour," which generally includes breaks for Facebook, the bathroom, a phone call, and some conversation. The official work day in China is 8 hours long, but the standard shift is 12 hours. Generally, these shifts extend to 14-16 hours, especially when there's a hot new gadget to build. While Daisey is in Shenzhen, a Foxconn worker dies after working a 34-hour shift.
Assembly lines can only move as fast as their slowest worker, so all the workers are watched (with cameras). Most people stand.
The workers stay in dormitories. In a 12-by-12 cement cube of a room, Daisey counts 15 beds, stacked like drawers up to the ceiling. Normal-sized Americans would not fit in them.
Unions are illegal in China. Anyone found trying to unionize is sent to prison.
Daisey interviews dozens of (former) workers who are secretly supporting a union. One group talked about using "hexane," an iPhone screen cleaner. Hexane evaporates faster than other screen cleaners, which allows the production line to go faster. Hexane is also a neuro-toxin. The hands of the workers who tell him about it shake uncontrollably.
Some workers can no longer work because their hands have been destroyed by doing the same thing hundreds of thousands of times over many years (mega-carpal-tunnel). This could have been avoided if the workers had merely shifted jobs. Once the workers' hands no longer work, obviously, they're canned.
One former worker had asked her company to pay her overtime, and when her company refused, she went to the labor board. The labor board put her on a black list that was circulated to every company in the area. The workers on the black list are branded "troublemakers" and companies won't hire them.
One man got his hand crushed in a metal press at Foxconn. Foxconn did not give him medical attention. When the man's hand healed, it no longer worked. So they fired him. (Fortunately, the man was able to get a new job, at a wood-working plant. The hours are much better there, he says — only 70 hours a week).
The man, by the way, made the metal casings of iPads at Foxconn. Daisey showed him his iPad. The man had never seen one before. He held it and played with it. He said it was "magic."

Importantly, Shenzhen's factories, as hellish as they are, have been a boon to the people of China. Liberal economist Paul Krugman says so. NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof says so. Kristof's wife's ancestors are from a village near Shenzhen. So he knows of what he speaks. The "grimness" of the factories, Kristof says, is actually better than the "grimness" of the rice paddies.

So, looked at that way, Apple is helping funnel money from rich American and European consumers to poor workers in China. Without Foxconn and other assembly plants, Chinese workers might still be working in rice paddies, making $50 a month instead of $250 a month (Kristof's estimates. In 2010, Reuters says, Foxconn workers were given a raise to $298 per month, or $10 a day, or less than $1 an hour). With this money, they're doing considerably better than they once were. Especially women, who had few other alternatives.

But, of course, the reason Apple assembles iPhones and iPads in China instead of America, is that assembling them here or Europe would cost much, much more — even with shipping and transportation. And it would cost much, much more because, in the United States and Europe, we have established minimum acceptable standards for the treatment and pay of workers like those who build the iPhones and iPads.

Foxconn, needless to say, doesn't come anywhere near meeting these minimum standards.

If Apple decided to build iPhones and iPads for Americans using American labor rules, two things would likely happen:

The prices of iPhones and iPads would go up
Apple's profit margins would go down

Neither of those things would be good for American consumers or Apple shareholders. But they might not be all that awful, either. Unlike some electronics manufacturers, Apple's profit margins are so high that they could go down a lot and still be high. And some Americans would presumably feel better about loving their iPhones and iPads if they knew that the products had been built using American labor rules.

In other words, Apple could probably afford to use American labor rules when building iPhones and iPads without destroying its business.

So it seems reasonable to ask why Apple is choosing NOT to do that.

(Not that Apple is the only company choosing to avoid American labor rules and costs, of course — almost all manufacturing companies that want to survive, let alone thrive, have to reduce production costs and standards by making their products elsewhere.)

The bottom line is that iPhones and iPads cost what they do because they are built using labor practices that would be illegal in this country — because people in this country consider those practices grossly unfair.

That's not a value judgment. It's a fact.

So, next time you pick up your iPhone or iPad, ask yourself how you feel about that.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-chi...z1jjAUVm4r

The first part is obviously sarcastic. But either way, nothing funny at this. Hopefully Apple will be well punished for this.

This does explain why Apple products break up so easily. Done underprice, sold overprice. iCrap4S

"Normal-sized americans would not fit in them" (the beds)

Subtle hint that americans are fatasses.

Foxconn sure has been getting a lot of spotlight in the past couple weeks. First there was the article last week about the employees threatening mass suicide, now this.

Since it's China, there's nothing we can do to stop it, either. The worst that will happen is the US companies will switch to another, equally horrible Chinese supplier.

This does explain why Apple products break up so easily.

1) How many apple products have you had/broken to be able to say that?
2) That has nothing to do with durability and everything to do with how the owner handles it.

1) How many apple products have you had/broken to be able to say that?
2) That has nothing to do with durability and everything to do with how the owner handles it.

1) I don't buy iCrap in the first place. I'm basing my claim on seeing 3 persons with broken iPhones in my school, including my friend.
2) Yes, yes it does. When people work 70cents/H they don't have the motivation to focus on what they are doing. Nor do they always have the proper education for it.

1) I don't buy iCrap in the first place. I'm basing my claim on seeing 3 persons with broken iPhones in my school, including my friend.

You've seen 3 out of millions of iPhones and you're obviously biased against it.
LMAO.
I don't like apple products either but you have nothing valid to base the claim on.

This isn't even new..?

You've seen 3 out of millions of iPhones and you're obviously biased against it.
LMAO.

LMAO. I haven't seen million iPhones. iPhones obviously aren't as popular here as Finnish phones (Nokia), plenty of people have Samsungs/HTC too. That was just in my school. I know about plenty of iPods breaking up as well.

I'm not biased. I'm saying that I've PERSONALLY witnessed more broken iPhones COMPARED to other phones(all of them "worked" but the screen was in pieces).

Finland isn't like US where almost everyone has one.

And neither is the US? You have never been to the US and you think almost everyone has an iPhone? You have very much to learn little boy.

I'm not biased. I'm saying that I've PERSONALLY witnessed more broken iPhones COMPARED to other phones(all of them "worked" but the screen was in pieces).

I've had my Phone for over a year and it hasn't broken. It's still in perfect condition. This is mostly a matter of care that the individual has rather than the product itself. I've dropped it a few times and it has never broken. You seem to have a large sense of ignorance.

LMAO. I haven't seen million iPhones. iPhones obviously aren't as popular here as Finnish phones (Nokia), plenty of people have Samsungs/HTC too. That was just in my school. I know about plenty of iPods breaking up as well.

I'm not biased. I'm saying that I've PERSONALLY witnessed more broken iPhones COMPARED to other phones(all of them "worked" but the screen was in pieces).

I hope you understand that most people against apple products are more pissed off the fact they are incompatible with everything else. Quality wise it typically beats microsoft, not even regarding the Ipod's which obviously dominate the market.

1) I don't buy iCrap in the first place. I'm basing my claim on seeing 3 persons with broken iPhones in my school, including my friend.
2) Yes, yes it does. When people work 70cents/H they don't have the motivation to focus on what they are doing. Nor do they always have the proper education for it.

1) Then you have 0 credibility. I've owned an iphone since 1st gen and know at least 4 people that have had iphones since at least 2nd gen. None of them got new phones due to breakage, nor were the new phones non-iphones.
2) Have you ever been to china? The fact that the worker can be replaced for the littlest detail would be pretty motivating when they're probably the bread winner for the family. You're seriously trying to use the workers as an argument for why iphones MIGHT be fragile instead of just f'ucking admitting that it's lifespan has literally everything to do with the OWNER OF THE PHONE?

I hope you understand that most people against apple products are more pissed off the fact they are incompatible with everything else. Quality wise it typically beats microsoft, not even regarding the Ipod's which obviously dominate the market.

Since when did Microsoft start building their own devices?

Since when did Microsoft start building their own devices?

Where did I state they built them? A microsoft product is inferior to an Apple product. The ordeal PC users have is that if a MAC breaks down you have to completely replace it, and it doesn't cross to any non-apple products naturally. They also have no insurance to virus' but I will concede that my aunt's MAC laptop is built with better quality than most distributors.*

You're so arrogant.

Since when did Microsoft start building their own devices?

Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune, Keyboards, Mice, Pocket PC, etc.

Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune, Keyboards, Mice, Pocket PC, etc.

Fine. phones*

Fine. phones*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_C...one_System

I actually heard this on NPR the other day. There is no reason for massive "Apple hatred" to pollute this thread. Everything else in the world is manufactured, mainly by hand, in China. Until that country undergoes a massive revolution of sorts, things will continue as they are now.

I've owned two iPhones, iPhone 2G(first generation), iPhone 4. First one got ran over by buses and cars because I dropped it in the middle of the road while chasing after a bus (long story). But only thing that was wrong with it afterwards was dents on the aluminum backing, otherwise it worked fine (until I lost it in China). Broken screens are a more common problem because of two things; 1, everyone has one, 2, it's glass. When you see one with a broken screen, it's actually just the digitizer, the LCD behind it is actually fine.

Like many people have said, if you own any pomegranate that has "made in china" on them, chances are they're made in the same or worse conditions than where the iPhones are assembled. I think Apple's at least trying to give a pineapple about it and provides reports and pressures their manufactures to provide better wages/working environment. They could easily choose not to do any of it and be like all the rest. Also getting paid ~$300USD per month is aprox $2000 in China, that's not a bad wage at all (also consider food and residence is provided). Sure Apple can't control everything, it isn't really their responsibility to micromanage their manufacturers for child labor, but at least they're doing something. Also consider a lot of people there actually WANT/NEED to work that many hours, since they have family, kids who depend on them to send money to them every month.

And neither is the US? You have never been to the US and you think almost everyone has an iPhone? You have very much to learn little boy.

Everyone and their mother has an iPhone here, a 4S is like 199.99 with Verizon, just saw in Best buy today