[Discuss] foxconn

[adler at stephenadler.com (Stephen Adler)]

On 11/06/2011 10:13 AM, Hsuan-Yeh Chang wrote:
> Stephen Adler<adler at stephenadler.com>  wrote:
>> I've recently read a news article which talked about Foxconn and their
>> supposed abusive labour practices. Foxconn is the maker of a lot of
>> popular electronics including the iPhone.
>>
>> This got me thinking, when I go off an buy a motherboard or memory SIMM
>> or whatever, am I buying a product which has been manufactured by
>> laborers who work under conditions I wouldn't allow my own family to
>> work under? Is there any awarness campain or whatever which allows one
>> to buy some electronic component which was manufactured in conditions
>> which meet some kind of labor standards? On my part, I would pay more
>> for my electronic components if I new they were being manufactured using
>> a by someone who's working under good conditions, not sweat shop like
>> conditions. Am I being too paranoid about this in the sense that labor
>> conditions in China are just fine and the workers are well paid and not
>> over worked?
> It all boils down to cost.  Foxconn is one of the OEM manufacturers,
> who make products in accordance with the specification of brand names
> (such as HP, Dell, etc.).  Admit it or not, when you pay X amount of
> dollars for your hardware, most of your money goes to the brand names,
> not to the OEMs.  The OEMs only have a profit margin of at most 3-5%.
> Foxconn is not the target to blame.  It's the brand names who hide
> behind the scene and who earn big bucks.  Ask the brand names to give
> OEMs more profit margins such that they can improve their workers'
> working condition.  Those brand names bring production lines
> off-shore, partly because they want to earn more by cutting cost and
> partly because they don't want to be blamed of putting employees under
> undesirable working conditions, which closely correlate with cost
> control.
>
> HYC
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Going forward, I'm going to pay more attention to where the stuff I buy 
comes from. And hopefully I'll have time to research alternate 
manufactures who, at least through internet searches, don't have as bad 
a rep as other manufactures....