The recent assertions from within the ranks of the GOP that Obama wants to turn America into a Communist country make me laugh and shake my head. They’re implying that Capitalism and Communism are mutually exclusive, when China proves them wrong on that point every day. The New York Times has this article on how iPhones are manufactured. Apple does it with a little help from its friends in the Chinese government.
When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.
One aspect of iPhone production that the article doesn’t get into is the rash of suicides at Foxconn facilities. The problem for Apple, and other electronics manufacturers who rely on Chinese labor, is that eventually the workers will stop tolerating the conditions they work under and suicides will be replaced with strikes. Note: I’m writing this on my durable Acer Aspire One netbook, purchased for $250 three years ago, that was made in China.
Follow-up: The New York Times has posted a second article about Apple that gets into injury-and-death issues involved with iPhone/iPad production.
