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Pretty much highlighting slavery outsourced. We all hate to fill those workers' shoes, but love the fruits of their hard labour. OT: American Factory (2019) do

Pretty much highlighting slavery outsourced. We all hate to fill those workers' shoes, but love the fruits of their hard labour. OT: American Factory (2019) documentary was a good watch too. Edit: Vote with your wallet in capitalism; what goes around comes around to bite ...

kinkrtyavimoodh 7y ago
What's worse is it's not like that the fruits of their hard labor would be more expensive if they were treated better. Companies like Apple would just need to cut into their ginormous profit margins instead of being able to sit on literally (edit: hundreds of) billions of dollars in cash.
- paggle 7y ago
  “Literally billions” is a severe understatement, it’s $245 billion.
- devoply 7y ago
  But they need the 245 billion, imagine if the paid half of it to workers instead.. 1.3 million Foxxcon employees would get $75,000 a piece. Meanwhile China dreams of world domination on the back of American capitalism. Best of all worlds.
  - ClumsyPilot 7y ago
    Meanwhile they have families to feed, and this capitalism is built on the literal backs of those (and american) workers.
- ajmurmann 7y ago
  I wonder if the additional cost would even be significant to pay workers better and provide reasonable work hours. How much total, time is spent by actual people working on each iPhone in these factories? Is that even a full hour? I understand the hourly rate is less than $10. So how much difference could paying them well possibly make? The issue on the article seems to be about too many contact workers during rush time which honestly seems reasonable if not inevitable.
- rsa4046 7y ago
  Relevant to that, there's a good talk by Herman Mark Schwartz [0], in which he reports that total offshore holdings of top 15 US firms exceeds $1 T (more than Obama's ARRA stimulus of $830 B). Excludes onshore cash, and Apple's is a significant fraction of this pile. He argues that monopoly IP rights (originally public goods) held by cash-rich firms leads to lack of real investment. [0] Wealth and Secular Stagnation: The Role of Industrial Organization and Intellectual Property Rights. https://t.co/ZQ5RgHGdFo https://t.co/ZQ5RgHGdFo

kinkrtyavimoodh 7y ago

What's worse is it's not like that the fruits of their hard labor would be more expensive if they were treated better. Companies like Apple would just need to cut into their ginormous profit margins instead of being able to sit on literally (edit: hundreds of) billions of dollars in cash.

paggle 7y ago
“Literally billions” is a severe understatement, it’s $245 billion.
devoply 7y ago
But they need the 245 billion, imagine if the paid half of it to workers instead.. 1.3 million Foxxcon employees would get $75,000 a piece. Meanwhile China dreams of world domination on the back of American capitalism. Best of all worlds.
- ClumsyPilot 7y ago
  Meanwhile they have families to feed, and this capitalism is built on the literal backs of those (and american) workers.
ajmurmann 7y ago
I wonder if the additional cost would even be significant to pay workers better and provide reasonable work hours. How much total, time is spent by actual people working on each iPhone in these factories? Is that even a full hour? I understand the hourly rate is less than $10. So how much difference could paying them well possibly make? The issue on the article seems to be about too many contact workers during rush time which honestly seems reasonable if not inevitable.
rsa4046 7y ago
Relevant to that, there's a good talk by Herman Mark Schwartz [0], in which he reports that total offshore holdings of top 15 US firms exceeds $1 T (more than Obama's ARRA stimulus of $830 B). Excludes onshore cash, and Apple's is a significant fraction of this pile. He argues that monopoly IP rights (originally public goods) held by cash-rich firms leads to lack of real investment. [0] Wealth and Secular Stagnation: The Role of Industrial Organization and Intellectual Property Rights. https://t.co/ZQ5RgHGdFo https://t.co/ZQ5RgHGdFo