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Apple, as other companies of such huge size with extremely complex supply chain, don't go too deep to inspect what their contractors do. They turn a blind eye,

by kbart 11y ago

Apple, as other companies of such huge size with extremely complex supply chain, don't go too deep to inspect what their contractors do. They turn a blind eye, because it's all down to the matter if you can come up with an excuse and remain clean: "we don't know and physically can't check what all our sub-sub-contractors do, but we will no longer deal with them until they fix it" etc. Unless we have laws that hold all involved parties accountable, such practice will prevail.

thirdsun 11y ago
In my opinion Apple seems to be going to reasonable lengths to keep its supply chain clean. I think you underestimate the challenge of making sure that suppliers 2, 3 or 4 levels apart from you play by the rules. I work at a small company that uses, among other things, fabrics in their supply chain and even at the second level it's very hard to confirm simple specifications that are much less interesting or scandalous than the topic at hand. I wouldn't want to imagine how difficult it is to do the same thing when it comes to scandals and issues that the supplier of your supplier 3 levels deep actually really, really wants to hide.
- kbart 11y ago
  I agree that it's a very hard problem and the change of the whole industry is required to fix it. But I believe, with enough resources and will it would be possible. The problem is, that nobody actually cares -- it's all about PR now only. For example, let's take food industry where regulations are enforced on all levels and restaurant, after poisoning their clients, can't simply say: "Sorry, we didn't mean that, we had no idea these mushrooms came from Chernobyl, but rest assured we won't deal with this supplier again".
yomism 11y ago
And we happily buy their products absorbing their marketing message: "you are a creative and nice person that does good for the world (using our products, that is)". And when faced with the reality that Apple is a money making machine and is only worried about doing a bad thing if it dirties its public image detracting from their marketing message our cognitive dissonance starts screeching. So we, buyers of their products, are good people because they say their products are for good people, right? Look at the thread and find the comments that say "they will remove the contractors, apologize and so they will return to being a good company, they are the best!". Samsung sure is worst in their practices but at least they don't coat their public image with a hippy-happy-creative good natured coat. They are a ruthless asian electronics conglomerate behaving as such.
- chippy 11y ago
  Not only do we believe the brand message, but we invest ourselves wholly in the brand. To go against the brand actually hurts ourselves. To say "I made a mistake investing thousands of days and dollars on this" hurts. Thus, it's often much easier to defend your investment by defending the brand, attacking the attackers and expressing "it's the way of the world" and "that's life, it needs inequality" whilst remaining nice and creative. Defence of investment, a basic human psychological drive.

by kbart 11y ago

thirdsun 11y ago

In my opinion Apple seems to be going to reasonable lengths to keep its supply chain clean. I think you underestimate the challenge of making sure that suppliers 2, 3 or 4 levels apart from you play by the rules. I work at a small company that uses, among other things, fabrics in their supply chain and even at the second level it's very hard to confirm simple specifications that are much less interesting or scandalous than the topic at hand. I wouldn't want to imagine how difficult it is to do the same thing when it comes to scandals and issues that the supplier of your supplier 3 levels deep actually really, really wants to hide.

kbart 11y ago
I agree that it's a very hard problem and the change of the whole industry is required to fix it. But I believe, with enough resources and will it would be possible. The problem is, that nobody actually cares -- it's all about PR now only. For example, let's take food industry where regulations are enforced on all levels and restaurant, after poisoning their clients, can't simply say: "Sorry, we didn't mean that, we had no idea these mushrooms came from Chernobyl, but rest assured we won't deal with this supplier again".

yomism 11y ago

And we happily buy their products absorbing their marketing message: "you are a creative and nice person that does good for the world (using our products, that is)". And when faced with the reality that Apple is a money making machine and is only worried about doing a bad thing if it dirties its public image detracting from their marketing message our cognitive dissonance starts screeching. So we, buyers of their products, are good people because they say their products are for good people, right? Look at the thread and find the comments that say "they will remove the contractors, apologize and so they will return to being a good company, they are the best!". Samsung sure is worst in their practices but at least they don't coat their public image with a hippy-happy-creative good natured coat. They are a ruthless asian electronics conglomerate behaving as such.

chippy 11y ago
Not only do we believe the brand message, but we invest ourselves wholly in the brand. To go against the brand actually hurts ourselves. To say "I made a mistake investing thousands of days and dollars on this" hurts. Thus, it's often much easier to defend your investment by defending the brand, attacking the attackers and expressing "it's the way of the world" and "that's life, it needs inequality" whilst remaining nice and creative. Defence of investment, a basic human psychological drive.