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> Manufacturing cost effectively and manufacturing cost effectively while maintaining workplace safety, paying a living wage and respecting the environment are

> Manufacturing cost effectively and manufacturing cost effectively while maintaining workplace safety, paying a living wage and respecting the environment are two different things, and it is the latter that you are comparing with the former. It would be interesting to see some objective measurements about how much of the cost difference is explained by which differences in practice. For example, I think the "living wage" paid to manufacturing employees in the U.S. frequently exceeds the real living wage by a substantial margin, which they exact from their employers via a monopoly on labor (unions).

jacquesm 17y ago
Let me give you just one example, not even looking at the cost of waste processing and such, because they don't apply to this story. A friend of mine is an interesting character, something of a mechanical/electrical genius, he can literally fix any machinery. One of his jobs involved flying to China to help with the repair of a machine that mass produced latex condoms. While he was there the proud owner of the condom factory announced he had just finished the creation of a factory for car jacks that were sold in large numbers to the big three car manufacturers for inclusion with their vehicles. He got a tour of the 'new' factory. He described a scene straight out of the worst of the beginnings of the industrial age. Workers, mostly women and children stood at endless tables in very bad light operating hand operated machine tools and tool-and-die stamping machines. Plenty of them were missing fingers or worse, and the pace was literally feverish, the noise deafening. It was the most unsafe machine shop he has ever seen and he's been in quite a few of them. Now, arguably this is low tech stuff, not comparable with your macbook, and I'd hope that Apple held their suppliers to a higher standard. But responsible waste management and safety cost a lot of money when you factor them in to the end price of a product, no matter whether it's a nike shoe, a macbook or a car jack.
- houseabsolute 17y ago
  Fair enough, but Apple apparently has very stringent inspection practices with the factories it maintains overseas in order to ensure things like this aren't going on. Yet they still choose to do business here rather than there. I admit it's possible they are simply lying about these practices, but I think it's more likely that a substantial portion of the savings have nothing to do with human rights or basic environmental issues.
  - three14 17y ago
    Even supposing Apple has perfect inspections, the workers only need money to buy goods on their local market - and their local goods and services going to be much cheaper because they're manufactured under those same poor working conditions. So Apple still gains from Chinese working conditions.

jacquesm 17y ago

Let me give you just one example, not even looking at the cost of waste processing and such, because they don't apply to this story. A friend of mine is an interesting character, something of a mechanical/electrical genius, he can literally fix any machinery. One of his jobs involved flying to China to help with the repair of a machine that mass produced latex condoms. While he was there the proud owner of the condom factory announced he had just finished the creation of a factory for car jacks that were sold in large numbers to the big three car manufacturers for inclusion with their vehicles. He got a tour of the 'new' factory. He described a scene straight out of the worst of the beginnings of the industrial age. Workers, mostly women and children stood at endless tables in very bad light operating hand operated machine tools and tool-and-die stamping machines. Plenty of them were missing fingers or worse, and the pace was literally feverish, the noise deafening. It was the most unsafe machine shop he has ever seen and he's been in quite a few of them. Now, arguably this is low tech stuff, not comparable with your macbook, and I'd hope that Apple held their suppliers to a higher standard. But responsible waste management and safety cost a lot of money when you factor them in to the end price of a product, no matter whether it's a nike shoe, a macbook or a car jack.

houseabsolute 17y ago
Fair enough, but Apple apparently has very stringent inspection practices with the factories it maintains overseas in order to ensure things like this aren't going on. Yet they still choose to do business here rather than there. I admit it's possible they are simply lying about these practices, but I think it's more likely that a substantial portion of the savings have nothing to do with human rights or basic environmental issues.
- three14 17y ago
  Even supposing Apple has perfect inspections, the workers only need money to buy goods on their local market - and their local goods and services going to be much cheaper because they're manufactured under those same poor working conditions. So Apple still gains from Chinese working conditions.