Apple - Foxconn suicides: Who's responsible?

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
1/25/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

We are.

A recent article on Catholic Online (which you can read here) explained why Apple and other US firms are turning increasingly to Chinese factories to generate ever-increasing profits. Firms cite the high expense of hiring American workers and the high productivity of Chinese factories as key factors in their decision making, as well as the ready availability of cheap, highly qualified engineers and laborers. Meanwhile, Americans decry conditions in Chinese factories, which they see as deplorable, and the hemorrhage of American jobs to outsourcing.

Suicide nets at the Foxconn factory in China where Apple products are assembled.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Chinese factories are self-contained cities with workers living side-by-side in dorms. Workers spend an average of 10-12 hours per day working, six days a week. The factories feed them, clothe them, and provide everything they need.

Factory managers rotate workers from job to job to reduce boredom and provide cross training, they also provide recreational facilities to the workers, and even counseling and mental health services when needed.

It might not seem like such a bad deal for the workers whose alternative might be to eek out a living in the countryside, or to make do with less.

So why the suicide nets?

A number of factories across China have nets designed to dissuade and, if need be, catch workers jumping to their death. Suicide has become a serious occupational hazard for workers in China's factories, and the news is starting to grab headlines.

The fact of the matter is, life in a Chinese factory is unpleasant, boring, repetitive, and workers have little to no privacy, and few rights-if any. The food is nothing to write home about either. Employers can set workers to task at any hour, force them into overtime, and arbitrarily fire them if desired. It's as near to slavery as one can get without the chains.

In the west, it's easy to blame the multinational corporations that employ the workers in such conditions, as well as the Chinese government, but there are three things people must know when discussing these issues.

Executives have a duty to create profits: Note, that's profits-not jobs. Americans are quick to decry outsourcing, but an executive's duty is to make the most cost effective labor decisions possible. This often means outsourcing. Add the fact that many corporations while based in the US are genuinely multi-national and the decision to outsource is generally sound. In fact they may not see "outsourcing" as outsourcing at all, but rather as simply creating jobs in another area.

Americans insist on corporate profits: If corporate profits were reduced, or did not exist, then the retirement plans of most Americans would cease to be. Many Americans, even working-class Americans, now have some degree of investment in the stock market. We're proud of our retirement plans and we like to boast about our profits (when we have them). Without corporate executives making profitable labor decisions, our retirement plans would grow much more slowly.

We're addicted to cheap electronics: Let's face it -- would you rather pay more or less for your iPhone? According to Apple, producing the iPhone in the US would add at least $65 to its price. For some (to be fair, not all) that would be too much to spend. And it's not just iPhones. How do you like your big screen TV? Would you buy it if the cost was doubled? Every day we consume cheap products that are manufactured in China. We demand these products at the prices they are. Executives know this because higher-priced products simply cannot compete. Americans want manufacturing jobs for themselves and humane working conditions overseas, but when given the option, we buy otherwise.

Ultimately, this means we as a country must reexamine our habits and the message we are sending to corporate America. Yes, the Chinese government, the factory managers, and the multinational corporate executives are very much responsible for those suicide nets around the factories. However, we too are responsible for those nets. Our government regulations, and our consumer behavior, our relative lack of skilled labor (at low price) are also responsible for the outsourcing of our jobs.

It should be noted that these practices also create jobs in America-just in different sectors. For example, Apple's success has led to the creation of tens of thousands of retail jobs. But is this the trade we want for our manufacturing industry?

The answer to these questions must be settled by the American people who must spend time learning the facts and considering the problem. The situation is far more complex than what can be explained in the scope of an article.

But let it be made pointedly clear: How we behave in the free market dictates what that market does. We drive the market as consumers, not the executives, not the managers, and not governments.

As for the workers - China has their own plan to combat discontentment in the factories. Robots are now being installed in ever-increasing numbers thus making human workers obsolete and eliminating the myriad concerns, and expenses, with worker's rights.

So we have an ontological question to answer.

What's your response?

Share your comments below.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Apple, Foxconn, suicide nets, worker's rights

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1 - 6 of 6 Comments

Sera
1 year ago
Okay, so yes, it's sad that people died. But if you really pay attention and not go by just ONE article, a couple of the suicides were not even related to what they were doing for work (i.e. broke up with their girlfriend, admitted to a psych ward, etc). But this doesnt stop Americans from buying iPhones. They've made the necessary changes, so stop feeling sorry for them. We all do what we have to do to survive. It's not just iPhones that we have to worry about, if that's the case. Our name brand shoes, clothes, watches, just to name a few, were also outsourced to these countries. They work in awful conditions. Not to mention, stuff like this happens in our own soil. Meat-packing plants, for example. But you know what? I'm not going to walk around naked with no feet protection, and forgo keeping in touch with my family and friends just because people are dying. I lost a friend to a car accident last year. That does not stop me from driving my car. Open your eyes, and don't let dumb little articles get your emotions all in a bunch. Research it - meaning read more than one stinking article on this subject, and stop blaming corporate America for being the cause of all this. You are the consumer. So technically it's your fault!
Rob
1 year ago
I think this article raises some really good questions. And I think it get's to the heart of a lot of problems our country is facing right now. The functional atheisim we have in our church today is mostly because we aren't living all that differently from the non-believers. Many will criticize the pastors for not speaking out bodly enough about abortion. But when is the last time you heard a sermon about living as Christ did? When is the last time we heard a solid sermon about the stewardship of our finances, consummerism and everything that comes with that. I believe money is one area where very few can say that they have given this over to the Lord. We have a standard of living in this country that is unparalleled. And I think it's made us soft. But I also think that it's caused us to turn a blind eye to the plight of our brothers and sisters around the world. To whom much is given, much is expected. Abortion is a tragedy to be sure, but so are people starving to death as we squabble over effective tax rates. One might argue that it's the constant seeking for comfort and security in worldly things (money, 401K plans etc) that our trust in God has faltered and so has our witness. And if we who claim to follow Christ do not preach by our daily conduct (work habits, spending, entertainment choices etc), then can we really be suprised that the secularist continue to grow? Like everything else, we have debt, deficits, outsourced jobs, cheap chinese crap and abortion, because we want it. We argue a good game, but at the end of the day we never step up to do what needs to be done.
Greg
1 year ago
So, Steve Jobs made enormous amounts of money from these sad situations, knowingly I assume. And now he has to face God and answer for it. Steve was a great inventor and innovator, however, what do you suppose God's view of him his now that he is standing in front of him? I'm not here to judge him, just asking the question. God have mercy.
L K Tucker
1 year ago
There have been many stories about the suicides in China. Activists want to blame someone and point to the abusive treatment of workers. But where true sweatshop conditions have existed such as the garment industry in New York there have never been suicides. At France Telecom with a 35 hour work week and union negotiated wages there have been 60 suicide attempts with a reported 30 deaths. That's much higher than Foxconn but it is never mentioned.

The true cause in both countries is shown in video and pictures taken by TV news crews, Subliminal Distraction exposure. SD, a normal feature in everyone's physiology of sight was discovered to cause mental breaks for office workers forty years ago. The cubicle was designed to deal with the vision startle reflex to stop the problem by 1968. (See the links at the top of the Home page, VisionAndPsychosis.Net.)

Foxconn uses cubicles in engineering offices in Korea but did not understand why they must be used. They put electronics assembly line workers, who must make decisions and use full mental investment, too close together without a side-vision blocking scheme, Cubicle Level Protection between them.

I reached the activists in Hong Kong, Foxconn, and Apple but nothing was done. What's the morality in wanting to argue rather than stop the deaths?

The same situation and exposure exists in U.S. colleges. Each semester there is a new group of student suicides. Schools I have written refused to investigate. If they prove the connection they also prove that the school is responsible for the deaths.

Again, what's the morality in refusing to look this problem up, where it is explained, in first semester psychology under the physiology of sight when lives are at risk.
joe montana
1 year ago
. . . and yet unlike slavery they are not required to work in the factories and their standard of living increases substantially as a result of these jobs. How is this bad! If their is a suicide problem, (no statistics are cited), I wonder if maybe it doesn't have more to do with their pagan outlook on life. That companies want to earn money and people like to pay less for things is stating the obvious. These are good things. I'm sure the writers of this article mean well but their utopian dreams do not coincide with the real world anywhere, ever!
Darlie Brewster
1 year ago
"Firms cite the high expense of hiring American workers and the high productivity of Chinese factories as key factors in their decision making, as well as the ready availability of cheap, highly qualified engineers and laborers"

And you believe them. Apple is holding 82 billion dollars of off shore profit. These are utter lies by companies who are simply trying to make the greatest profit regardless of the human tragedy. 12 year olds working 16 hour days 6 days a week for 31 cents an hour. I am shocked that everyone is so silent on the horror. It is a shame for humanity that we are so utterly insensitive.

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