Suicides With IPhones

[Lucky]

300,000 jobs which should be available right here in the United States are instead in China, all because Iphone users don't want to pay a few dollars more. To get savings on these Iphones, working conditions are so horrid that many employees there have committed suicide. Why is a cheaper Iphone so worth the cost in lives and American jobs?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081801836.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[Guest restless]

Jesus, they are so expensive to begin with, how much more would they be if they were made in the US? Is the difference so much that it's worth somebody's life, let alone multiple lives?

[lookin]

300,000 jobs which should be available right here in the United States are instead in China, all because Iphone users don't want to pay a few dollars more. To get savings on these Iphones, working conditions are so horrid that many employees there have committed suicide. Why is a cheaper Iphone so worth the cost in lives and American jobs?

Maybe I don't get around as much these days, but I can't recall ever being given the opportunity to make that choice.

How about if Apple offers two versions of the iPhone, side by side. One costs $299 and is labeled "Made in China, causing Chinese suicides and lost American jobs" while the other costs a few dollars more and is labeled "Made in USA, preventing Chinese suicides and providing 300,000 American jobs". That would give us the choice they're implying we have.

Better yet, why don't they offer the USA-made version at $299 with a label that says: "Apple makes a few dollars less on this one."

Guess which one I'd choose.

I hear these "customers don't want to pay more" statements more times than I can count. I think they're used to further bloat profits and to justify some outrageous corporate decisions with hidden and delayed ramifications, while offloading the blame to poorly informed consumers. I find these statements downright offensive, and immediately distrust the company that makes them.

[/rant]

[Guest Klair]

China? Don't forget India. I'm getting awfully tired of calling a customer service number and hearing, "May I hay-lp you?" Most of the time those are the last three words I can understand. Remember that song, "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" These days it might as well be, "How Are Things in Rawalpindi?"

[JKane]

I'd say this comes down to Apple's greed, not consumers. Consumers have shown they're willing to pay whatever and put up with whatever when it comes to the iPhone.

Even if Apple sold the hardware at a loss they'd still be making a fortune in app sales plus iTunes downloads.

But it doesn't seem that the thought to make slightly less money would ever occur to them for any reason.

Reminds me of a Baba Wawa interview with Jobs I saw years ago, where she asked him now that he more money than his kid's kids could spend, would he be starting any philanthropic organizations (like Gates had just done at the time)?

His answer was he's not done making it yet. This was before the iPhone and the Pixar/Disney deal, guess he *still* doesn't have enough.

[MsGuy]

A few days ago I read an article about costing out the iphone (or maybe one of its competitors). Of the 8 component chips that make the thing work, one was sourced to a US based outfit. The rest were sourced all over the place, one from Germany, one from China, one or two from Taiwan, one or two from Japan, & so forth. If you repatriated iphone assembly and slapped a "made in USA" label on it, most of the value added would still occur overseas. It's the kind of world we live in.

My nephew is just back from Ho Chi Minh City where he's been riding herd on furniture suppliers for his boss. His company is thriving but most of the rest of the furniture industry here is in the process of collapse. I understand North Carolina (higher-end product) is in a world of hurt too. That's 2 for 2 for the only major furniture manufacturing regions in the US. The only US furniture operations that aint dying are converting (or already have converted) to assembling flat ware made overseas. High shipping costs for assembled furniture is the only reason they do that much.

But foreign made furniture assembled here costs out at less than 1/2 as much as American made furniture. That's not conjecture and that's not spin, that's reality. In 10 years you won't be able to buy American furniture, other than ultra high-end hand crafted pieces.

I'm not happy over this. My home town used to be a prosperous little manufacturing community, steel works, textiles and an assortment of light industries. Now its job base has been devastated by overseas competition. We even had to beg for state help to replace a Main Street bridge that fell in.

But I don't know what to do about it.

[Lucky]

So, now that we can't buy just about anything not mad in China, what recourse do we have? I bought a TV this week. All the models were made in China. Wanna buy dog food, it's mostly made in China with God knows what.

MS- I feel for your nephew having too spend time in Ho Chi. I was there 2 years ago and the place is pure chaos. Lots of young people, all on miniscooters that take over the roads and allow no pedestrians, at all. Going to Chinatown we couldn't look at any shops because of the bikes riding up on the sidewalks in every direction!

[TampaYankee]

But foreign made furniture assembled here costs out at less than 1/2 as much as American made furniture. That's not conjecture and that's not spin, that's reality. In 10 years you won't be able to buy American furniture, other than ultra high-end hand crafted pieces.

I'm not happy over this. My home town used to be a prosperous little manufacturing community, steel works, textiles and an assortment of light industries. Now its job base has been devastated by overseas competition. We even had to beg for state help to replace a Main Street bridge that fell in.

But I don't know what to do about it.

Color me unhappy too. I was railing in the forums two years ago about the selling of America to China by Wall St and the government policy. Nobody much cared, or maybe there was nobody around to care. The damage, severe damange has been done. All so that fat cats could get fatter and much of that increased wealth went up in smoke in the BIG Crash. Oh, the few, the very rich made money and even in the fall, no doubt. We consumers paid less for goods at the hidden expense of lost jobs and tax revenues that went with those jobs. It was ok, we borrowed to make up the difference. Things ran smoothly.

This is tied in with our recovery We do not make things anymore -- well just autos which many wanted to toss out too. This is a crazy country IMO.

Because we do not make anything anymore our economy is 70% consumer based. We buy, buy, buy. That is what makes the economy run here. Well, it did.

But with 20 million out of work, much of our consumer base has no money to consume. The GOP doesnt want to give unemployment benefits to spur spending among the actively unemployed (if i may coin that term). The employed have changed their spending habits as a result of the crash and the lingering economic uncertainty.

Why is it we cannot compete in manufacturing while Germany maintains a strong manufacturing base with exports to go with it? I'd hazzard a guess that we Americans are transfixed on the quick and easy buck -- quarterly reports rule. Buy cheap elsewhere, double the price and sell quickly. Make money on turnover and keep the market churning. Well, that gravy train has run off the rails for now. The churning market has taken a hiatus.

We'd be wise to learn how to manufacture competitively again, products that cannot be turned out on a card table in Asia. I doubt either party has the vision or fortitude to embark on that road. One promising opening was renewable energy technology. I say 'was' because we have ceded that to China and they are eating our lunch once again.