*promote

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 7:10am PDT - promote requested by original submitter dystopianfuturetoday.

wow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn

edit:
NYT article about increasing bargaining power for workers in China talks about Foxconn
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/business/global/09labor.html

I haven't had a raise in years. Unfortunately I don't own a gun and my building is only 2 stories. Anybody know any good heroin dealers? Nah, that would just look like an accident.

@rottenseed I hear some rope is all you need.

>> ^bmacs27:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://douchebag.videosift.com" title="member since July 26th, 2007" class="profilelink"><strong style="color: rgb(0, 136, 0);">rottenseed I hear some rope is all you need.

I failed at boy scouts.

I think alot of the explanation if the description is not accurate. I have visited many of these factories in east and se asia, though not the campus in question.

No lineworker spends their entire life working at a manufacturer. If you visit these places, you will observe that most of the line workers are young women. This is because they have the best dexterity for assembling items. These workers know that in a few years they will not be able to keep up; from what I understand, many people are saving in anticipation.

Also the foxconn campus in question is at least 500k workers. No suicide is good, but I wonder what is the rate (15 out of 500,000 in 6 months) for other high stress jobs anywhere, or for an urban population in general.

I hear it's only the racist ones that killed themselves. Also this: my PS3 rocks!

LOL, communism fail.

> Also the foxconn campus in question is at least 500k workers. No suicide is good,
> but I wonder what is the rate (15 out of 500,000 in 6 months) for other high stress
> jobs anywhere, or for an urban population in general.

HAH!! dude... they are killing themselves... at WORK

Well said. I think it's really easy to look at places like Foxconn with our western eyes and cluck our tongues -- but the fact of the matter is that the workers at places like that are making a lot more than they would otherwise, and thus are able to afford a better standard of living for themselves and their families.
>> ^longde:

I think alot of the explanation if the description is not accurate. I have visited many of these factories in east and se asia, though not the campus in question.
No lineworker spends their entire life working at a manufacturer. If you visit these places, you will observe that most of the line workers are young women. This is because they have the best dexterity for assembling items. These workers know that in a few years they will not be able to keep up; from what I understand, many people are saving in anticipation.
Also the foxconn campus in question is at least 500k workers. No suicide is good, but I wonder what is the rate (15 out of 500,000 in 6 months) for other high stress jobs anywhere, or for an urban population in general.

But these people live at work. Their company provides their housing. That may seem strange, but I'm sure other countries would find strange our system where the employer provides health benefits.

>> ^deathcow:
> Also the foxconn campus in question is at least 500k workers. No suicide is good,
> but I wonder what is the rate (15 out of 500,000 in 6 months) for other high stress
> jobs anywhere, or for an urban population in general.
HAH!! dude... they are killing themselves... at WORK

iPhone Suicide: FoxConn Worker Sun Danyong Lost iPhone Prototype

"His former classmates told Chinese newspapers that during the investigation into the missing phone he was beaten, his house was searched and he was locked up in a room.

In an online chat with his friends, he described his experience as one of the most humiliating in his life."

Suicide? There's an app for that. (Featuring iShot™)

So apparently foxconn is no longer compensating suicide victims families, and is relocating production to Vietnam and automated facilities in Taiwan.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/09/foxconn-axes-suicide-compensation-relocating-some-production-to/

And DFT, quit with the hyperbole. Slavery? Yeaaaaahhhh.... No.

Well, it's either a fast suicide now, or long drawn-out painful death of cancer, inevitable due to the harsh toxins they are exposed to daily. Manufacturing printed circuit boards, integrated circuits, etc is a pretty hazardous operation.

Also, the rich manufacturing guy was being criticized, but not the rich bigwigs at Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Dell.

If foxconn wasn't making the products cheap, another chinese manufacturer would have been given the contract. If the iPad was made in USA, it would probably cost $2000+ (and that would be from a highly automated robotic assembly line).

What gets me is that they can double wages on a whim. Proof that they're paying them as little as possible to make as much as possible. Those folks need to discover the balancing power of unionization.

>> ^mentality:

And DFT, quit with the hyperbole. Slavery? Yeaaaaahhhh.... No.


Slavery is as slavery does. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

>> ^spawnflagger:

If the iPad was made in USA, it would probably cost $2000+ (and that would be from a highly automated robotic assembly line).


That's the problem in a nutshell. We value everyday low prices over human rights. We didn't really abolish slavery, we just exported it. We are sick.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
>> ^mentality:
And DFT, quit with the hyperbole. Slavery? Yeaaaaahhhh.... No.

Slavery is as slavery does. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery



Then use the term wage slavery. They are two distinct concepts and the differences are too great for you to carelessly use one term while meaning the other. I may be a "wage slave" if I need to work 2 jobs to pay my bills and support my family, but no one is going to shit in my mouth and beat me to death if I try to quit work.

^If such distinctions make you feel better about our culture, then more power to you. We westerners aren't nearly as modern or enlightened as we think we are, mentality. We like to talk about freedom and liberty, but in truth we exploit the weak and powerless. We profit from the suffering of others. I'm not being sanctimonious, I'm no better than anyone else.

>> ^alizarin:

What gets me is that they can double wages on a whim. Proof that they're paying them as little as possible to make as much as possible. Those folks need to discover the balancing power of unionization.


Only problem with unionization there is that the population density is so high that they could fire all employees over and over. They would need to get a nearly country wide consensus. The company also has the ability to move it's production elsewhere making it even worse. The only true way they may resolve it is for government intervention, but that is iffy too. Another angle would be for the workers to be very aggressive about the issues and again would need a plant wide consensus, act more or less at the same time, be prepared to violate laws, and potentially for violence that could spill into the community.

Bad situation.

I would say we as Americans could worry about this....if we took care of the same problems on our own soil. There are immigrants brought into the US (some illegal, some not) who are brought here sometimes by their own family members. They may be Mexican, Indian, etc...their relation who live in the US own a convenience store or dry cleaner, and they provide housing, and charge for meals. They set it up so these people might have a minimal amount left over if any, and basically get a worker whose wages go back into housing and food charges that they collect direct from the wages. Sometimes they got these people sleeping 5 and 6 to one small apartment. And that's taking place in the US.

Lots of really bad shit happens in the US, but somehow our news networks find it easier to investigate and report on other countries problems....maybe it's just easier for their audience to digest. Or maybe in this case....because it deals with some major company and not the Quickie Mart on the corner.

Lots of blatant problems and injustices happening in the US, and we're out policing the world like we know what the fuck we're doing.