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At Foxconn in the last five years there have been 17 reported suicides out of ~1 million workers. The US rate in 2007 was, according to the American Foundation

At Foxconn in the last five years there have been 17 reported suicides out of ~1 million workers. The US rate in 2007 was, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 11.5 suicides per 100,000 people, or ~35x higher than the Foxconn rate. Foxconners are not unusually predisposed to kill themselves. It's a jingoistic myth.

Groxx 15y ago
How many of those 11.5/100k have been done at work, though? The 17 and this quote seem to imply those are just the ones happening at the buildings themselves: >To pacify its increasingly restive workers, Foxconn has repeatedly bumped up their wages, improved facilities, provided counselling and swathed its factories with nets to catch anyone leaping from a window. And, for comparison, the WHO gives numbers that are closer to each other, though still surprising individually: http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/ http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicider...
- free 15y ago
  IIRC, foxconn provides on campus housing for the workers, so everything happens at the plant
  - Groxx 15y ago
    That rings a bell, thanks! I do wonder why the (relatively) extreme measures exist if there isn't a problem, though. Straight PR could explain, but I find it a bit unlikely.
  - Groxx 15y ago
    That rings a bell, thanks! I do wonder why the (relatively) extreme measures exist if there isn't a problem, though. Straight PR could explain, but I find it a bit unlikely.