NYT Expose On Chinese Working Conditions In Apple Factories - Microeconomic Help Please

[Jordan]

Either people in China work in Apple factories or they starve. Once you accept that reality, you realize that it's better than the alternative - seems to be a common thread with the free market, huh?

[LibForestPaul]

But that is capitalism! Pay the worker as little as he is willing to take to get the job and still be able to attract enough workers to do it while on the other hand selling the goods for as much as the consumer is willing to pay.

Unions, eh? There is an idea! Power to the workers!

nice backhanded propaganda.
There is not boss and workers in a free market. Only voluntary contracts between free men. Everyone is a consumer and everyone is a producer. But in this grotesque system, created by the International Banking Cartel, such a system is suppressed through force and violence.

LLC,
PC,
subsidies
government grants
wages vs profits
infinite copyright
tax favoritism
legal tender
fiat currency
pension confiscation
private risk bailout

The list is endless...

[onlyrp]

There was a company I know of in Guandong Province that allowed that (allowing low wage employees to be reimbursed for meals, rather than take them directly), but it made headlines, and there was a stink over it. It's not an option, pretty much throughout most of China, as both a cultural as well as a legal thing. China has been through some very rough famines and mass starvation, even in recent history - they are so sensitive to starvation that the most common greeting in Chinese translates to "Did you eat yet?" ("nǐ chī le mā?" pronounced "nee chur la ma?") As such, all companies - anyone with low wage employees, and not just companies with subsidized housing - are fully expected to pay for/provide workers meals. They will never reimburse an employee for going without, as the company is required to provide the food whether it's taken or not. If you have a job in China, the food may not be to your liking, but the employer is definitely providing it directly, and you are eating.

My company has a 10 RMB per person per day budget for lunches (very big by Chinese standards, as 1-5 RMB per person is common). It's all pooled, so a catering service normally provides the meals, except on announced days when we take the employees all out to lunch. But they never see the lunch money, and it's illegal to even offer it as per diem if they are below a certain pay scale.

what does your company do in China?

[onlyrp]

Yup, most people don't understand the concept of purchasing-power-parity neither do they understand the concept of "money"; they think "money" is important but in reality it's the GOODS & SERVICES that matter, the more there are, the more prosperous people will be & the only way to maximize goods & services is people making allowing those who are producing them to maximize profits & re-invest them to produce even more!

People also don't realize that these sweatshops is what has



So obvious but socialists just don't realize it! And thereby they only perpetuate more misery

the same reason people want "jobs" when in fact they want either money or goods, they'd be happy to be unemployed if they had everything else they wanted.

[Diurdi]

If you want a truely, completely free market, an employer should be able to exploit the workers as much as they can- even in this country. Profits for the boss or shareholders should be all that matters. If you want that. I think workers should be able to share in what they help to produce. Henry Ford wanted his workers to be able to afford to buy what they were making.

That may sound nice, but in reality it makes no fucking sense what so ever.

If you work for a farm, you will probably be able to afford a potato. If you build million dollar industry machinery, no you're probably not going to be able to afford it. So what?

Also, paying low wages is not the same as exploitation. Bad working conditions is not the same as exploitation. In some cases genuine slave labor exists, but it's rather rare. Only in the case of child labor could I call it exploitation because the children aren't really capable of making big decisions and assess risks. But even child labor is necessary in the poorest countries.

Welcome to reality.

[onlyrp]

i dont think he is disagreeing.

That may sound nice, but in reality it makes no fucking sense what so ever.

If you work for a farm, you will probably be able to afford a potato. If you build million dollar industry machinery, no you're probably not going to be able to afford it. So what?

Also, paying low wages is not the same as exploitation. Bad working conditions is not the same as exploitation. In some cases genuine slave labor exists, but it's rather rare. Only in the case of child labor could I call it exploitation because the children aren't really capable of making big decisions and assess risks. But even child labor is necessary in the poorest countries.

Welcome to reality.

[Steven Douglas]

what does your company do in China?

Semiconductor wafer fab support, primarily precision gas flow/pressure measurement and control.

[Paul Or Nothing II]

That may sound nice, but in reality it makes no fucking sense what so ever.

If you work for a farm, you will probably be able to afford a potato. If you build million dollar industry machinery, no you're probably not going to be able to afford it. So what?

Also, paying low wages is not the same as exploitation. Bad working conditions is not the same as exploitation. In some cases genuine slave labor exists, but it's rather rare. Only in the case of child labor could I call it exploitation because the children aren't really capable of making big decisions and assess risks. But even child labor is necessary in the poorest countries.

Welcome to reality.

Very well said And why don't people realize that "slaves" don't get wages!

[onlyrp]

Very well said And why don't people realize that "slaves" don't get wages!

if you're a liberal who believes you need a house, wife, dog, 2 kids to live, then anything less, such as WalMart is considered "no wages".

[tttppp]

if you're a liberal who believes you need a house, wife, dog, 2 kids to live, then anything less, such as WalMart is considered "no wages".

I actually think most people in America are really just slaves. If you think about traditional slavery, slaves do work in exchange for food and shelter and pretty much nothing else. Well the typical employee today makes just enough money to get a place to live, food to eat, clothes, and a car to get to and from work. Once you pay for those things, you generally have nothing left. A typical job gives you just enough money so you can afford to make it back to work the next day, no more. So you are basically a slave.

The only people who are not slaves either own their own company or have worked their way to the top of the corporate ladder. The rest are mostly slaves.