[Discuss] Origin of computer products

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Steven Adler asked:
> I don't know why I've suddenly gotten this guilt feeling
> thinking that the computer I use was put together under
> abusive labor practices.... For some reason it's really
> never crossed my mind who are the people and under what
> working conditions they labor who worked on assembling the
> components of my PC.

A couple months ago, ABC News ran a series of reports in which they went into
people's homes and put every foreign-made thing out to the curb.  Bare rooms
were left behind.  Last week when I visited Microcenter, I pictured what the
showroom would look like once ABC News got done with it, and wondered whether
there'd be any room left in the parking lot after piling up the mountain of
Chinese-made products.

However I think your question is better than that of the ABC reporters.  You
asked "what conditions" rather than "where".  If all we ever cared about was
the "where" rather than the "what", then we'd set up protectionist policies
that coddle inefficient local companies and lead the USA to overall economic
ruin even faster than we're already headed.

What I'd like to see is more regulation, rather than less, geared toward two
things:  maintaining a level playing field between big vs. small companies,
and protecting buyers from price-gouging or dangerous products.  Regulation is
the only thing that keeps many things we take for granted safe:  roads and
buildings need to be fire- and collapse-resistant, food and drugs need to
contain no toxic chemicals.

Applying this logic to the computer business, we've already debated the major
level playing field issue (small companies have little chance against large
competitors who increasingly control intellectual property policy, so we wind
up with crappy consumer electronics and outdated websites run by the big guys,
with brave competitors falling by the wayside each passing month).  Your
question raises the other question:  can we buy safe products that do little
harm to the environment?  By their very nature, those whizzy color displays
(and even some "green" products) contain chemicals whose extraction and
processing expose workers to dangerous toxins.

Almost none of the raw materials or even the manufactured goods come from the
USA, and even if they did, multinational corporations currently operate
outside the bounds of any nation's law.  We consumers have very little
information on which to base purchase decisions, other than the almighty price
tag.

Thanks for the food for thought; here's a challenge for the rest of y'all: 
look for electronic goods made outside China.  Some examples:  I have hard
drives from Thailand (in the news recently because of flooded factories),
cameras/camcorders from Japan (surprisingly rare now, most Japanese makers
have outsourced to China), a plasma TV from Mexico, UPS units from the
Philippines.  Alas, I can't find PCs or laptops made anywhere but China.  My
logic is this:  even if those countries don't have better conditions, at least
the competition among nations will push them toward better conditions.

-rich