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Life and death in Apple’s forbidden city

• valuearb 9y ago
  Yawn. " Most knew of the reports of poor conditions before joining, but they either needed the work or it didn’t bother them. " It's not really journalism if you can't answer the question, why work at Foxconn? The author seems oblivious to how good these jobs are compared to others in China. Rural chinese farm laborers earn far less and die at much higher rates. It's a conceit of the wealthy nations to forget the hard work and sacrifices that were necessary to build their luxurious standard of living.
• GhostVII 9y ago
  > Worker after worker threw themselves off the towering dorm buildings, sometimes in broad daylight, in tragic displays of desperation – and in protest at the work conditions inside. There were 18 reported suicide attempts that year alone and 14 confirmed deaths. In the US, the average suicide rate is 7 per 100,000, so if Foxconne was in the US, we would expect ~25 suicides per year. So, by this logic, most US companies have such bad working conditions employees are killing themselves in a 'tragic display of desperation.'