Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Should You Feel Guilty Buying an iPhone?
The story that I read about was about to workers of Foxconn. Foxconn is a China based factory that makes Appleproducts such as the iPod, iPhone and the iPad. The workers at Foxconn have recently started to protest due to the harsh working conditions that they are facing. Foxconn is a 24- hour factory and the workers work six days a week, sometimes in twelve hour shifts. The workers live close to the factory in dorm like places and some of the workers are underage. There have been reports of people being seen jumping from the buildings that the workers in in an attempt to commit suicide. One worker in that worked for an Apple manufacturing company in Changdu was killed due to an explosion at the factory. Foxconn however denies the reports of any of these horrible working conditions that is being reported by the New York Times. Apple refuses to comment of the subject however there was an e mail form the CEO leaked saying that Apple is committed to worker safety and take it the claims very seriously. People in the U.S responded to this by saying that Apple should make their products in the U.S. because those working conditions wouldn't be acceptable here. In order for Apple to make their products here there would have to be an increase on the price of the products and Americans are not willing to pay more than they already do for the products. If the workers in China do stage a boycott against their employers and are successful, than the conditions for the workers could very well change but the prices of the goods here in America would change also. The prices of all of our favorite gadgets would increase significantly.
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I found this topic to be very interesting because of the crazy work conditions that these workers are faced with. I don’t quite understand why the workers don’t just quit their job. Is it mandatory for them to work in these shops? If so, I completely disagree with how China runs their workshops. That is why I am lucky to be from America, and would welcome Apple moving their factories to the United States. I understand that comes with the risk of Apple having to raise their product price, but they are such a dominant company that I don’t believe they would take any type of hit. Apple should step up and stop this problem before it gets out of control. I’m sure with article leaking that people around America aren’t too happy with Apple, so they can come back by fixing the problem and trying to gain buyers back.
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