How are you liking that new iPad? To die for, is it?

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Bit harsh Karlos, have you done your research? The Foxconn suicide rate is actually quite a bit lower than the China average.

Not to say working conditions aren't horrible compared to what we are used to, but compared to the rest of China, it's not actually that bad...

Second, Foxconn probably made 70% of the hardware in your house right now... so lets not smear Apple with this one... I would point out that both Apple and Dell have at least put in place codes of practice for Foxconn to adhere to

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It's no secret that I have a fair few Apple products (iPhone, MacBook Pro, Logic Pro), but the Apple Suicide Factory articles are sensationalist.

Forxconn employs over 500,000 people. Out of those people 10 people committed suicide this year.

The Chinese average is 14 suicides per 100,000 people... That puts the Foxconn suicide average much lower than the national average.

I would add that there have been 2 suicides at places of my work in the past 3 years* (working in organisations of no more than 1000 people)... so lets please have some perspective on this!


-Edit-* Of which I'm totally sure unrelated to my presence.

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I should say that while big companies like HP, Dell, Apple etc use a big company like Foxconn which does have some degree of standards (Perhaps not as high as we would all like)... think about all the cheaper tat that is made in factories with no standards at all! These are the real problem

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Forget the national average, it isn't relevant to the point being made. How many Foxconn employees suicided in the last 10 years due to work related stress and how does that figure, when averaged, compare to the present value for this year?

I'm still recovering from a mild case of food poisoning (having a chinese girlfriend is hard on the digestive system). So excuse any fogginess in my reasoning.

But I'm pretty sure you can't ignore the national average of suicides... One would expect to find 70 employees to kill themselves at Foxconn per year, regardless of working conditions. Maybe I have missed something here, but that is a simple stat, full stop?

The suggestions in the article are that excessive demand is outstripping their production capacity which is leading to these problems.

Let's ignore what the article is hinting at and look at some actual facts. I refuse to accept a single source as definitive evidence for anything.

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For sure, they are everywhere. I was just needling Matt over his 70% figure. I think the likes of ikea are possibly responsible for a slightly larger proportion of the stuff in my place than Foxconn.

Err... yeah, my poisoned mind meant to say 70% of your electrical equipment has probably either been made by Foxconn or has Foxconn components in it.

As I say, from this and other sources running the story the suggestion appears to be that these recent suicides represent a leap in the rate for Foxconn which, as has been stated above, is reputedly one of the better employers. A leap that has coincided to the company over-reaching in order to satisfy the demand from some of their clients. Or Apple specifically, so the rumour mill goes.

Not sure Apple sell THAT much hardware... Despite the reality distortion field, Apple isn't number one in any hardware field that Foxconn make.

Do we have any year on year data for Foxconn suicides?

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The still-growing population of religious Apple followers would still buy an Apple iPad/Pod/gizmo even if they knew that humans were tortured in the manufacturing process, IMO.

Pretty much all the Crap we own is made by people being exploited. Working for a wage we couldn't use to buy a coffee with, in conditions that wouldn't be be acceptable for a farm in the 1960s...

But does that stop us? No, the bitter guilt is the price we pay for our lavish life styles. (The BBC recently produced an Entertainumentary called "Blood, Sweat and Luxuries" which was quite good at giving an example of how people suffer for us).

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By a strange quirk of coincidence, so am I :lol:

Weird! :-o I should be more careful when eating deep fried balls of formless god-knows-what in a chinese restaurant.

Sure, that's what you'd expect if the national average were some target value companies aimed at (can you imagine that?), rather than being the aggregate value over a wide spectrum  from the very good to the very bad. From what I gather, the current rate is higher than Foxconn's own track record. Perhaps this is not the case but the fact is that it is being regarded as something exceptional byt the owner/management:

Good point, but by that token suggests that Foxconn are serious about making the working conditions better... which negates the argument of the company being an evil sweatshop somewhat... no?

It's not just this article that is making the same hint, a quick googles
 search and you'll find a dozen more :-/

I did a bit of research last week, which is where my figures come from... I haven't had a look recently... I'm probably gonna get some sleep now anyway, my head is splitting

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Sounds like pot stickers. Currently, I'm not dating a Chinese woman. I gave them up after the ex-fiancee (you can actually see a pic of me with her on the Faces of Amiga.org from way back), but since I have a clearer head, ie not dating a Chinese woman, I can mediate this dispute between the two of you.

Where has faces gone?