Tags
Apple, China, Daring Fireball, Economy, Factories, Foxconn, John Gruber, Manufacturing, Outsourcing
There has been a lot of news recently about Apple and their relationship to the factory workers in China. Many reports have been coming out about the worker mistreatment in these factories, the little money they earn, the long hour shifts, and the most disturbing of all, the suicides by the workers in the Foxconn plant. This American Life dedicated an entire show to the topic which profiles Mike Daisy and his one man show titled The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. N+1 Magazine also published a powerful essay on the subject titled Outsourcing Jobs. The NyTimes also did a pair of articles. A series they titled the iEconomy. One tackles the subject of why Americans didn’t get these jobs, How the US Lost out on iPhone Work, and the other about the general worker mistreatment, In China, Human Costs are Built into an iPad.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an Apple fan or not, this is concerning. This should concern you. If you’re into computers and gadgets, this should concern you. Because if you read the articles you’ll see that factories like Foxconn don’t just make stuff for Apple, but for other companies like Dell, HP, and others. And it’s not a political thing. Deciding not to buy an Apple product wont make things better. But being aware of it might help a bit.
So why this focus on Apple, since other technology companies also outsource to third world countries? One answer is that they’re the top dogs right now. But I also think it’s because Apple, at least for us Apple partisans,(see episode 46 of Hypercritical), should do better. It’s a company that is held in a higher esteem because they represent higher values. They’re mission is not just to make a profit, or to just make beautiful computers and gadgets. They exist “to change the world.” Right?
So I’m surprised, and a bit disappointed, when John Gruber the other day linked to the NyTime article. I’m disappointed because in that link-post, Gruber did what he’s constantly being accused of doing. Even without saying anything, because all he did was link to the article, paste a negative pull quote, and link to Tim Cook’s email. What he did was very Apple partisan of him, or more colloquially, very Apple fanboy of him. Sure, an email from Tim Cook responding that Apple cares is “objectively” refuting what was in the quote, but that’s it? That’s all he’s going to say about it?
Maybe Gruber doesn’t feel qualified to tackle a complex subject such as human rights and working conditions in third world countries. But he could, if he wanted to. And you kind of expect him to. All those words and in depth analysis he has given to the iBooks EULA thing, or the iPhone mute/ring wars. He could give at least a couple of paragraphs. Maybe I’m being full of shit here, and he does have something in the works, being that he was at Macworld this past week, but till now all he gave us was a link. At least for me, that is not enough and his opinion on this is as important to me, and even more so, as his opinion on if force-quitting iOS apps really makes the iPhone faster.
*Update – Gruber did had some great stuff to say on the latest The Talk Show.
Good stuff. As an Apple user since 1985, tho’ I don’t view an OS as religion, I’m thoroughly a user of Apple products. Hell, I doubt I’d be a freelance book designer if not for Macintosh. But this whole thing with the inhumane treatment of factory workers–and suicides–in China is way more than any negative jazz I could live with Apple being a part of.
My problem, of course, is that my book design practice is dependent on their products. I’m just starting software and OS upgrades (including a new iPad2–unless I hear pretty quickly that an iPad3 is coming in March–to replace the 1st gen I gave my granddaughter) to get up to speed on various e-versions of books.
What’s the responsible thing to do without cutting off my nose to spite my face? I mean, I’m not giving up the tools I’ve used for 25 years, so it’s a tough question. Is emailing Apple enough?
I don’t know if an email would be enough, but I think it certainly can help.
Sure, viewing Apple strictly as another big, American business trying to buy its materials and the assembling of them into products low and then selling them high, you see how that’s the model for a business. So the rest of their sector must be doing similar things. Question is, what’s a willing, pleased consumer of their products to do. Certainly we’re the reason they can get away with doing business this way, as we keep buying their products. Frankly, i can’t afford to go a non-Apple way.
This one caught my interest (a little more than usual). I don’t know how I feel about Gruber’s post – I certainly understand your point of view. As for the Foxconn situation, I find it rather bizarre that the NYT posts such jarringly different articles.
Here’s an even bigger question, though: how many other electronics manufacturers (or manufacturers) are creating similar environments?
I imagine that many of them.