Joel Johnson, after he visited a Foxconn factory for Wired: To be soaked in materialism, to directly and indirectly champion it, has also brought guilt.
To be soaked in materialism, to directly and indirectly champion it, has also brought guilt. I don’t know if I have a right to the vast quantities of materials and energy I consume in my daily life. Even if I thought I did, I know the planet cannot bear my lifestyle multiplied by 7 billion individuals. I believe this understanding is shared, if only subconsciously, by almost everyone in the Western world.
I don’t mean to moralise, but it’s perhaps harder than ever to ignore the moral quandaries bound up with so many of the material goods we acquire, especially electronics, and maybe more especially still, ones made for Apple by workers in China, purchased by the hundreds of millions around the world — even if Apple probably does better than most at attempting to assuage the conditions of its supply chain workers.
Which makes today’s featured charity on Philanthroper more pointed than usual, at least for Gizmodo readers — Verite essentially works to make the global labour situation more fair, and they claim to have return $US5-$US6 million to workers in Apple’s supply chain alone. I’m going to drop in a few bucks — a dollar for every Apple product I’ve owned, which seems like a reasonable enough thing to do. [Philanthroper]
Barry
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 3:50 PMIf this is a serious issue or problem. Shouldn’t Apple be force to give money and not the public or increased prices of Apple products?
wsDK_II
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 3:55 PMwell since Apple have almost $1 Billion sitting around in liquid assets, i think they should donate $10 for every product they had made by these people.
a few hundered million should cover the slave labor they hired.
James Ray Cox
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 4:13 PMSounds like socialism to me Barry.
Kroo
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 4:16 PMSorry, could you try that again in english, I didn’t quite get what your were trying to say?
So Apple is the only company that has manufactured goods in China? How about Dell, or HP? Nike? Ford? GM? Or did I miss “kick Apple” day? I thought it was on a tuesday…….
Esophagus
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 2:37 PMTall poppy syndrome, Kroo.
jamall
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 4:22 PMMaybe it’s just my overactive imagination, but I quite like that when I open up an iPhone for the very first time, I can actually smell the sweat, tears, and if I’m lucky blood, of the ungrateful drones who assembled it, who would starve to death if it weren’t for the consumerism of people like me who give their otherwise meaningless lives value. Comments?
Timmahh
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 4:34 PMOk I understand the moral dilemma here, but somehow I don’t think treating those workers as charity cases is the way to go. Perhaps if we put pressure on the offending manufacturers to actually treat there workers with respect. What will happen if you start paying a dollar per item bought to the workers is drive their wages down, or worse! These people aren’t poor by their countries standards, they are treated like prisoners though…
Blake
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 5:27 PMI agree entirely.
I think even putting pressure on companies that work with Foxconn and the like to offer a ‘happy’ version of their product, that costs an extra $23 and is manufactured entirely by companies that pay their workers at least an American minimum wage.
Jack Hammer
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 7:58 PMYou cant pay people in other countries US minimum wage, it would unbalance their own economy. Throwing money at it is not the solution. The working conditions and hours are the problems, not the money. If there were paying bellow the usual rate, no one would pay them to get a job at Foxcon. Yes that’s right they have to pay to get a job there…..If you pay more to Apple or any other manufacturer for there products it will only give them more profits. Your $2 o $3 will never help anyone……
paul
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 8:19 PMI get really annoyed when my family buys chinese products when local versions are available like grocery items .
if there were quality equivalent products made in australia or anywhere else that has some sort of fair labour policy id buy that over the chinese product . I think the best way to change this situation is a boycott of chinese goods until better conditions are at least provided for workers.
olearymo
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 10:27 AMClothing and footwear sweatshops are by far a bigger problem than electronics manufacturers like foxconn
Daniel
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 9:44 PMOMFG! who comes up with this shit. How about Apple, that is rotten to the core, put 1 billion of there 13 billion net profit this year into helping the poor f#$*kers that have to make their products.
It’s not f#$!ing hard people.