Not to put a damper on the wake, as Jobs was a brilliant guy. But, let's face the reality.....he started as someone whose devices were forged out of piracy, and today it’s the most locked-down computer company in the world. Companies like Apple create planned obsolescence sooner rather than later, so it will become more and more difficult to stay functional without almost continual upgrades and replacements.
Replacing a battery....no, sorry, you have to send it to Apple, where they will send out a replacement. And don't forget to back up your data, because it's not coming back.
How many times have many of us jumped through each new upgrade hoop created by Apple? If we were more aware consumers, we might think more critically about the devices we buy. But there may not be a more ethical competitor to turn to. And with the loss of Jobs, is the corporate conscience likely to get any better?
Furthermore, look at the back of your device, almost any one of those devices with 300 or so patents.......where is this stuff manufactured?
Mostly in China, of course, the so-called "worker’s paradise", which, according to reports slipping out from industrial cities such as Shenzhen, has become a neo-Dickensian London. There are long hours, low wages, horrifying working conditions, child labor, and industrial accidents. There are reports of inhumane conditions and factory workers as young as 12 years old.
At Taiwan-owned but mainland-based Foxconn, the largest privately owned company in China, over 400,000 workers are employed in the manufacture of electronic components for dozens of US, European and Japanese companies. About half of them actually live in the factory compound. They earn around $100 per month and pay for rent and food from the company, which generally amounts to a little over half of their salaries. Their living spaces are small cubicles, often no more than 10 feet by ten feet. There is a high incidence of workers committing suicide by jumping off the roof of the factory, high enough that safety netting has been installed on some buildings.
Is Dell or HP any better at policing their overseas sources? Efforts by Apple to police suppliers of such component minerals as tantalum and tungsten, resulted in a published report that states that only one third of the audited manufacturing facilities had “practices in compliance” with Apple’s maximum of 60 hours a week.
Many Americans resent that China is “stealing” our manufacturing jobs. But what has actually happened is that we have GIVEN them away, colluding with both Chinas to strip away the labor conditions that so many thousands fought and died for to make possible.
So, okay, he was an innovator and a talented salesman/showman......but at what cost to the rest of us?
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Lots of good points here, but we are as guilty as Jobs was as you illustrate.
While we as surveyors want to be compensated for what we think our service is worth, how many times have we seen here where we come across looking like cheap SOB's. We always want the "best deal" (ie cheap) on a computer. We want free software. We don't want to pay for updates or additional licenses. etc etc How many of us would spend lots of extra dollars for a computer made in the US.
And, yes, I am guilty as charged.
more irony
just for another kicker, it is astonishing when you realize that many computer, electrical and software engineers from Asia came to the USA to be educated at your local universities.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Great points.
Until we get the regulations and taxes to a fair rate, those jobs will continue to go to China. We should be taxing the hell out of any imports coming from these countries as well. The USA can't compete with 50 cents an hour labor. Another way to help is get unions under control. They drive up labor costs, along with their work shut downs (often when they get paid twice what others get for same job).
I agree with most of your post, but we need to address the problems for employers here. If not it's hard to blame huge corporations for moving to these countries. Our own president is constantly praising China and others, then blaming corporations for running from his over regulation. You've opened a can of worms here, that could branch off into several discussions.
Have a great week.
Mark
Apple doesn't make much in the way of "work" computers, unless you are a graphics artist or music producer. They mostly make fun toys and gadgets. Their most popular stuff is Iphones, Ipads, and Ipods.
My family has had 4 Ipods and 1 Ipad, and I can't complain. There are probably 5 shops in my area that advertise Iphone repair (batteries, screens, etc.). The Apple store will just try to sell you a new one, though.
I have an old Ipod and never had to upgrade or update it for any fee. The only time one broke was when I took it away from daughter for misbehaving, and forgot it was in my pocket when I put my pants in the hamper ...
My only issue with Apple is that they blocked out Adobe Flash from the Ipad, because Jobs claimed Adobe was "buggy". Other than that, I can't complian about their products or business practice.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Get unions under control?
Unions have a small and declining share of the workforce as members.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
They have too much power in this country, and do very little. Look at the stimulas plan. Most work went to union workers, and your right there are very few of them. If contracts were open to non union shops, it could have doubled the amount employed. Along with lower the cost of projects. We had a state highway job in Wa. State several years ago. We had to use prevailing (union) wage. My employer had to double my pay on the job and pay a chainman (with little experience) $22 an hour. While I enjoyed the extra money, it showed me why government is going broke. My normal wage was very fair.
"Another way to help is get unions under control."
But then don't we wind up heading into a similar situation as I described above? Remember what labor conditions were like here in the US prior to unions and labor regulations?
"If not it's hard to blame huge corporations for moving to these countries."
The moral question here is the hardest...what is our responsibilty as consumers towards the people who actually perform the labor to manufacture products we want?
After all, wouldn't it be best if they could use slave labor, with no wages? The prices might go down (but not down too much, as corporations must still make their profits).
"I can't complain about their products or business practice."
So, you are happy with the fact that in order to get cheaper products, jobs go overseas to sweatshops, creating a lose-lose situation for US and overseas workers?
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Business leaders don't think like us.
Get all you can is their motto.
We tend to undervalue our services.
A business leader will be happy to receive $20 for a $5 product if they can. They don't really care about the larger consequences to the economy.
An economy outputs a certain amount of value. Naturally corporations would like to get of much of that as they can; this is basic human nature. The job of the Union is to get a bigger share of the pie for the employees of the corporations. I don't understand why we have sort of a belief that it is ok for Businesses and Corporations to get all they can while the Union doing exactly the same thing is somehow evil. It's weird.
Until we get our government under control, and tax these countries imports, people will buy the cheapest product. Our own white house praises the Chinese. I don't like what these countries do at all. We should not trade with them. Problem is communism seems to be getting very popular with our white house and their supporters (wall street protestors for example).
I think this is a great subject to debate, but all sides have to be viewed. Just visit Wallmart, and you'll see people seem just fine with Chinese products. Apparently America lost it's moral backbone on slave labor.
Low wage workers are cheaper than slaves. You have to house, feed and clothe slaves. Low wage workers take care of their shelter, subsistence and clothing themselves.
George Washington often complained that the slave system was inefficient. He was stuck paying their living costs while they were largely unmotivated to work hard.
Communism does not exist anywhere and has never existed anywhere.
While I don't totally disagree with you, a few points always bother me when I hear some of these arguments.
First, if we're going to bemoan the loss of US manufacturing jobs, and demonize the companies that move these jobs overseas, do we have any culpability for the loss of Chinese jobs when Haier builds refrigerators in South Carolina, or Swiss jobs when Nestle builds a plant in Indiana, or German jobs when Mercedes built a plant in Alabama, etc.?
Second, while the conditions in Chinese industrial centers may in fact be equitable to "Dickensian London", Dickensian London was an improvement over feudal medieval Europe, which is what most of China looked like fifty years ago. We seem to expect developing nations to either make some sort of quantum leap in conditions that the West wasn't able to in it's arc of development or remain undeveloped and dependent on the West. To me it's the same as Americans trying to "save" the Brazilian rainforest when our industrial heartland across the Great Lake states and the upper Midwest was built on the deforested remains of what was one of the largest contiguous deciduous forests on the continent.
So after reading you bemoan Steve Jobs, I assume then, that you have never purchased any of his products based on Apple's business practices?
We have met the enemy and he is us.
I think you just contradicted yourself. I have never seen a government project that requires union labor. Prevailing wage requirements are not a requirement for union wages. As a business owner, while I have never quite figured out how and why prevailing wages are higher than those paid by most larger firms in the area, I think that the concept of tax payer funded projects paying a reasonable wage and benefit package is a good thing. Call me a socialist if you want, but I do not think that I should make my money by the abuse of my employees.
I will stop now before I go over the edge.
> So after reading you bemoan Steve Jobs, I assume then, that you have never purchased any of his products based on Apple's business practices?
Nor purchased anything manufactured outside the US. Including surveying equipment.
> So after reading you bemoan Steve Jobs, I assume then, that you have never purchased any of his products based on Apple's business practices?
For a variety of reasons, many unrelated to my post above, I don't own ANY Apple products (Beatles Apple products excepted.....).
I do own products made by Intel, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Vizio, all of whom utilize components made by Foxconn. Apparently, it's unavoidable in a technological age.
>"....if we're going to bemoan the loss of US manufacturing jobs, and demonize the companies that move these jobs overseas, do we have any culpability for the loss of Chinese jobs when Haier builds refrigerators in South Carolina..."
Well, actually, no. Globalization is fine, but ultimately, the US has to look out for No.1 first. Is Haier or Nestle selling the product they make here to consumers back home? And if so, is it priced lower because of lower labor costs?.....I'd doubt it.
>"We seem to expect developing nations to either make some sort of quantum leap in conditions that the West wasn't able to...."
In a technological age, there is no reason to expect China to take decades to produce the kind of reforms that took place in the US over a century. For an economy that has grown to 90 times it's size in 1980, reform should be coming at greater speed.
Finally, as to the spectre of "communism", keep in mind that Foxconn is a PRIVATE COMPANY BASED IN TAIWAN, which is operating factories in Mainland China, as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia Poland, Brazil, Mexico and India. Their largest facility by far is the Shenzhen plant which comprises fifteen separate factories.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Prevailing Wage rates are taken directly from the union agreements. Operating Engineers has two "Locals" in CA, Local 3 covering N. CA and Local 12 covering S. CA.
The PW rates for wages and benefits published by the CA Dept of Industrial Relations for any given part of CA, for positions that OE represents are exactly the same as you will find in those private union contracts.
Govt contracts may not specify that union labor must be used, but the costs imposed by the PW laws gives advantage to union shops by requiring the same costs and requiring the accounting that a union shop does for union wage reporting anyway. Whether or not they actually require union labor is a difference without a distinction.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
The USA can't compete with 50 cents an hour labor. Another way to help is get unions under control. They drive up labor costs, along with their work shut downs (often when they get paid twice what others get for same job).
This guy is a perfect example of someone being manipulated to fight against his own best interests and completely missing the point. Good job, Rush. Geez,
Don