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Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech By Jason Perlow | February 2, 2012, 12:41pm PST Summary: Human and worker rights reforms in China would have serious negative consequences for the efficiency and cost of the gadget supply chain. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/happy-chinese-workers-spell-the-end-of-affordable-tech/19785
Recent coverage in the media over worker conditions in the Chinese factories which manufacture Apple’s products have “exposed” much of what all of us in the technology industry already knew but were unwilling to accept — that China is the most powerful engine of production for the technology industry, and that the blood, sweat and tears of Chinese workers is what fuels that hungry engine, at a tremendous cost to human rights.
I really don’t want to focus on the Apple side of this problem because the concern is an industry-wide problem. Apple was targeted because they are the largest and most powerful consumer electronics company in the world, but their situation is not unique.
The outsourced manufacturing subcontractors that Apple uses such as Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) are used industry-wide, by some of the largest players in technology.
Foxconn’s client list reads like a celebrity tech roster that includes Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel, Lenovo, IBM, Cisco/Linksys, Netgear, Microsoft, Sharp, Sony, Motorola, Asus, ACer and Vizio.
And to Foxconn’s celebrity clientele list I will also include the second and third place tablet runners and e-reader champions Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Yes, your Kindles and Nooks are also made by the very same companies with the same awful working conditions that make products for Apple.
As much as I think the Android crowd would love to claim moral superiority to Apple as it relates to the production of their toys, it can’t.
So we should cut to the chase that Apple is absolutely not unique in having products made by workers which are paid far below that of Americans, that work unbelievably long hours in sweatshops using child labor under conditions that rival that of the worst factories during the industrial revolution in America and Europe of the late nineteenth century.
The reason why Apple is being singled out is that they are the poster child for this problem. Apple’s current CEO, Tim Cook, was entirely responsible for shifting the company’s production to China during his tenure under Steve Jobs as Chief Operating Officer, and is credited as the genius behind the company’s manipulation of the Asian supply chain.
The bottom line why all of these manufacturers, Apple included, outsource much of their manufacturing to China is that the labor is cheap, in addition to escaping American taxes and regulatory issues which lower the costs of production.
It would be nearly impossible for these companies to stay competitive if they produced electronics in the United States because you would have to pay these workers decent salaries and decent benefits, you would have to conform to American labor laws which significantly reduce the number of hours these people could work, and you could never legally employ child workers.
So the sad truth is that in order to feed the world’s thirst for the latest and greatest in inexpensive smartphones, tablets, computers and other consumer electronics, a vast number of human beings in China need to suffer.
One has to wonder how long China as one of the world’s most quickly developing economies is truly going to be able to sustain this model.
As Chinese citizens accumulate wealth, and as China as a country becomes more of a participant on the world economic stage and as a member of the larger community of nations, and as its citizens gain more and more access to information about the world around them, its people will inevitably demand better working conditions, increased wages and increased rights overall.
None of these things are going to happen necessarily within five years or perhaps even ten. But it would be naive to say that China can sustain the quid pro quo of having the trappings of a despotic neo-communist nation and all of the worst aspects of modern capitalism indefinitely.
Companies like Foxconn or even the Chinese government may not bring about change on their own. It’s possible that as a result of this public outcry over mistreated Chinese workers, the foreign technology companies investing in China themselves may start having to build their own factories in that country and control their own means of production to ensure their own labor compliance directives.
This is already happening. In eWeek, writer Wayne Rash recently wrote a piece entitled “Making Smartphones Without Condoning Poor Work Conditions.” In it he writes about how Motorola Mobility, which has a firm commitment to corporate responsibility has invested a tremendous amount of money building its own factories in China and conducts and discloses regular audits of working conditions.
And Motorola’s workers in China are in fact their own employees.
Obviously, the cost to Motorola Mobility in order to have a corporate conscience is high. It is reflected in lower profit margins for their products which obviously hampers its ability to compete.
Motorola’s competitors which do not display an equally strong corporate conscience (such as Apple) need not concern themselves with these moral ambiguities. And they can use this lack of corporate conscience to their advantage with increased profit margins.
Profit margins that ultimately please Wall Street in terms of their yearly earnings statements.
But one day in the future for the nations which consume Chinese manufactured technology, and for all of the companies that have to do business in China like Apple, the party will be over. Any incremental cost of improving the lives of the Chinese workers will inevitably result in in increased costs in components and manufacturing outsourcing, which will be passed down to you, the consumer.
How much more expensive is anyone’s guess. It could be as low as 20 percent or as high as double the cost.
I had a conversation about this with my ZDNet colleague Ed Bott, and the expression he used was that America and other Chinese consuming technology nations would turn into “techno-Cubas”.
The reference he was making was that Americans and other nations might end up trying to keep their technology running much longer than they were designed for, in the same way Cubans have kept 1950’s and 1960’s automobiles running for decades due to the trade embargoes against their nation.
That is obviously a nightmare scenario, and as an industry we cannot allow that to happen because the consequences would be disastrous for driving technology consumption.
It’s certainly possible that Apple, with its growing war chest of over $90B, facing international pressure to improve the conditions of its workers, may eventually have to use that money to build its own factories in China or in other countries such as South Korea, which have an ample supply of skilled workers and also have far better working conditions as well as a superior reputation for upholding human rights.
In fact, such a transition for technology manufacturing to Korea may actually accelerate the need for a re-unification of that nation. With a combined population of over 73 million people, a unified North and South Korea could create an economic and manufacturing powerhouse not unlike what happened during the German reunification of the 1990’s.
Will international concerns over working conditions in China’s technology industry eventually result in increased costs for manufacturing and ultimately, the prices of consumer electronics and other technology products? Talk
下面评论也很有趣，认领的同学可以翻译下评论
- No, as the government of China won't allow it. Don't forget, China is not a democracy.
William Farrel 5 hrs ago
- RE: Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech @William Farrel
can you name a country that is?....hint it is not USA.
The Linux Geek 4 hrs ago
- Democracy is just another term for mob rule. @The Linux Geek
Monaco is one of the few countries in the world, with a population of only 30K, that could even begin to think of being run a pure democracy where every adult votes on every single decision in governmental politics.
For the most part, however, democracy is just another word for mob rule where the majority gets the say and there are no checks in place to look out for the "little guy". Under a true democracy, the First Amendment would make little sense if the majority wanted a state religion, then there would be one.
Bruizer 2 hrs ago
- RE: Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech @The Linux Geek
Some people claim India..... 
rhonin 10 minutes ago
- RE: Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech Apple needs to buy Foxconn and make it a factory just for Apple componets, kick everyeone else to the curb... that would create demand in other areas and new factories.
Hasam1991 5 hrs ago
- RE: Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech @Hasam1991
Doubt that they would be allowed. Not sure that China allows foreign ownership of its companies. We went through this where I work - we ended up in a mutual partnership with the company we thought we could buy.
benched42 5 hrs ago
- RE: Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech @Hasam1991
Plus apple has already gouged their prices to reflect the eventual cost of paying the labor that will eventually come.
Luckily for them, they did a great job of marketing their stuff to tree huggers and world savers to get people believe that they cared as a company about those folks that they banked a nice piece, got you used to their crack at the higher price, and now when their cost rise they can explain it away that raising YOUR price is better human rights treatment.
Their R&D team does great work, but since ~2003, their media arm should get better rating that the Pope!
No offense intended to AF, this is about the company, not the product.
QAonCall 3 hrs ago
- As it has been pointed out, if these products were manufactured and assembled in the states, or if the Chinese had similar rights or pay, the increase in production cost only goes up about $50 per unit.
This is why regulation is necessary, because businesses will treat workers like dirt, and actually dirt is worth more, ironically. Most businesses will do what they can to squeeze out every last dime of profit from the product with the expense of human suffering, this is why regulation and organized labor is warranted and needed. Those who say otherwise are crony capitalists.
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh 5 hrs ago
- RE: Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech @Snooki_smoosh_smoosh Oh oh, but you forget that you are not counting.... the people who make the parts that go into the iPhone before it's assembled. Or the people who ship and pack the iPhone. Don't forget the people who manage the people who make the iphone. Then you have to pay the people who dig up the materials that go into the iPhone. Eventually are you talking more than just a few dollars per phone.
nucrash 5 hrs ago
- Organized labor is uneeded. @Snooki_smoosh_smoosh
only a union lackey would say otherwise. Why the decline in organized labor? Because the hard working people where getting screwed.
What is in place are labor laws and the like.
And don't forget the lawyers, either. 
William Farrel 4 hrs ago
- Are you in favor of labor laws? @William Farrel
Aren't they a form of big government oppression, and blatant interference with the duty of every commercial enterprise to do everything possible to maximize profit?
Besides, many of them came about as a result of lobbying by organized labor.
John L. Ries 2 hrs ago
- RE: Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech @Snooki_smoosh_smoosh
I'm no business expert but I would think that a $50 increase in the cost of production would add at least $100 to the base cost for the consumer. In these days of people not wanting to pay too much over $500, a twenty percent price increase would turn many off buying. Bad for everyone.
Also, as nucrash said, when you take the whole process into account, I feel the cost to production would be well over $50. Just the wage cost alone would rise by more than 5 times. Remember each employer costs a company well over their actual salary and only being able to work people on 8 hour shifts would mean having to employ far more people at that much greater cost. I feel your $50 rise in cost would actually be closer to a hundred or more per unit. Sad as that may be.
A Grain of Salt 51 minutes ago
- For the love of science, This is Horse Pucky. I have trouble believing that Apple can make 400K per employee profit... That is profit, not total cost and can't stand to spare some of the expense. I understand some of these other companies competing trying to reduce their razor thin margins fighting to squeeze every ounce of profit they can.
This has been the consensus for years and this is why Unions come about and shake things up to level out the playing field. This will happen in China whether they try and stop it or not. It's not a matter of if, but when. Then when this does happen, the sweat shops will find another section of the world to populate, pollute, and please their corporate masters. What people do not realize is that the US was China at least in the form of economy more than a century ago.
nucrash 5 hrs ago
- RE: Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech @nucrash
The Chinese government in its form today will no allow unions as we in the US perceive unions to be.
benched42 5 hrs ago
- Which begs the question @benched42
How independent of the Communist Party are Chinese corporations really? Can one really believe that the only institutions in mainland China that are free from Communist Party control are commercial enterprises?
If a Communist state cannot stand independent trade unions, how can it allow independent corporations?
John L. Ries 2 hrs ago
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