Thursday, June 7th 2012
Workers Riot at Foxconn Chengdu iPhone/iPad Plant
If televised visits by Apple's top-brass to Foxconn's manufacturing facilities, and commitments to improve working conditions were mere PR exercises meant to cover up the issue of dismal working conditions, they failed. About 1,000 workers at Foxconn's manufacturing facility at Chengdu rioted on a large scale, which took the police several hours to subdue. According to media reports, the riot started when the facility guards were trying to stop a thief, while other workers who held grudges against the guards prevented them from catching the thief. Soon, the situation went out of control, as 1,000 workers started a riot. The workers were seen chucking pots, pans, garbage, and even fireworks from their dormitory windows. Public facilities sustained damage, the police made several arrests. The episode reveals that worker-management relations, at least at the Chengdu plant, which manufactures a massive amount of iPhone and iPad products for Apple, are at a breaking point.
Sources:
WantChinaTimes, VR-Zone
107 Comments on Workers Riot at Foxconn Chengdu iPhone/iPad Plant
GDP isn't good measurement in this situation. If you use GDP you are actually showing that USA is worse off.
The way GDP measurements are based around the cost of material, supplies and services used to produce final goods or services.
Naturally products in USA will cost more overal due to higher labour costs, higher material costs, thus the end product will cost more in retailers/shops so profit can be made. Therefore because American produced product sell for more in retail outlets the GDP is higher.
So really 15 trillion USD vs 5.93 trillion is just showing that products made in USA cost more to produce and sell for more and that products made in China are made cheap and are sold cheaply. It really has nothing to do with whether manufacturing is growing, stabilising or increasing (unless you compare trending metrics over long durations)
An example of GDP could be:
I can build 1,000 budget computers costing £500 per unit, grossing per year £500,000 (China)
Where whereas you can build 6,000 high end computers costing £1500 per unit, grossing per year 9000,000 (USA)
Even though I manufactured more PCs than you and sold for cheaper, you still grossed more than me (GDP). It doesn't mean you manufacture more it means you gross more due to higher prices and labour.
Question is, for what, why, what is the purpose??:shadedshuIn China unemployment rate is ZERO(0%), they offer free apartments to all graduates, free schools, some areas have free local transportation, etc. Lower wedge? Yeah....they don't pay rent, mortgage, 1 million taxes, etc...Let's not judge before knowing all the facts ;)
If it is so good, why don't you move to China? :rolleyes:
everywhere has its own problems, and chinas are certainly worrying. its no wonder people there have problems with the conditions.
A young girl was ran over by at least 4 different vehicles but eventually died after a few days.Sewage for cooking oil, fermented human hair for soy sauce, exploding watermelons, exploding sewers, sidewalks suddenly collapsing, crashing bullet trains, no safety measures in place to prevent bullet trains from crashing with another, a lot of fake products, walnuts made of cement, exploding coins, red/yellow/orange (literal) rivers, slimy and green beaches, high-rise apartments with shoddy foundations, randomly exploding apartments, exploding monitors, pillows filled with rubbish, punching bag filled with garbage, Chinese pet shops injecting puppies with heroin, exploding toilets, seaweed that is actually plastic, bridge partially made of rubbish, hairbands made from condoms, etc.
Personally I'm work traveling a lot into Asia to know how things REALLY are. And that Filipino guy should be the last person saying bad things about China. We both know why ... ;)
Remember, they have 1/4 of the world's population to deal with. What other organization has to manage that many people?The Philippines extradited 10 Taiwanese to China last year and not back to Taiwan. So should I be saying bad stuff about The Philippines?
You are talking about the government expenditure formula which factors in import and export.
The formula I'm talking about is aimed at production in a given country. All my examples are based on production not government expenditure or citizen income level which has a different formula and has a different set of statistics.Of course US is an economic power house.That's not totally true. Yes the government can do more, but another reason things are cheaper in China is because western societies like America and Europe have set up companies abroad in China and have manipulated unskilled workers, underage workers into working long and unsociable hours for a low wage. Plus China has access to natural materials like coal, iron ore, magnetite, petroleum, aluminium so their value is very cheap due to it's availability thus making the end product cheaper to produce, whereas in USA those materials are rare thus the end product cost more.So if a poor Chinese person lives with 3 uncles, an 2 aunties, and have 8 babies between them in a bedroom flat with no heating, internet or electricity because its all hey can afford, it's OK for them to be exploited because their standard of living doesn't require a high wage?I've met plenty of western people whom have decided to live in China and South East Asia full time. They wanted a better quality of life (you can live like a millionaire on a average western salary)
You can rent a top class hotel for 100 Yuan a night which is about £10 in English money. The equivalent hotel in England would be closer to £80 a night.
For this reason, many people have decided to emigrate from Europe to South East Asia to live like a millionaire!