“Apple publicly names its overseas suppliers. A New York Times article blasts working conditions there. CEO Tim Cook angrily rebukes the charges in an internal memo. Consumers call for a boycott of Apple products,” Tom Kaneshige writes for CIO. “Sound familiar?”
“The issues run deeper than merely denouncing China’s working conditions, which seem deplorable through the lens of American standards. And it’s wrong to wag a disapproving finger at American companies taking advantage of cheap overseas labor,” Kaneshige writes. “For starters, we’re to blame for most of it. American companies are also responsible but in a good way. Lastly, the New York Times article portrayed Apple’s Chinese supplier, Foxconn, in a harsh light, but I’d argue the opposite is true: Foxconn is an example of how far China has come.”
“Oscar Wilde once observed that people ‘know the price of everything and the value of nothing.’ The price of a product, it seems, is the only thing that truly matters to Americans…We are a society fixated on price more than features, which is why American companies are forced to outsource manufacturing overseas to places like China were labor is cheap. And yet we cry foul over the horrible labor conditions there and hold American companies here accountable,” Kaneshige writes. “This sanctimonious stench wafts from time to time, allowing us to hold our noses in the air and feel good about ourselves. Then it evaporates just as quickly.”
Kaneshige writes, “The only real way to improve labor conditions is the accumulation of capital. In other words, the reason 14-year-olds work in Indonesia lawfully is because they need to help put food on the table. That is, Indonesia’s economic condition requires its people to work at a young age. As a country becomes more prosperous, working conditions and salaries will ultimately improve. This is true even in communist China, albeit change happens more slowly because of the political climate. Think I’m crazy? Just compare working conditions at Chinese manufacturing plants a decade ago with Foxconn in the New York Times article this month.”
Much more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
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