The article I chose was titled “Should you feel guilty about buying you iPhone” from CNN.com by Steve Kovach and was published on January 31, 2012. The ethical issue about poor working conditions in China at the company who manufactures most of Apple’s products, Foxconn, is brought to light. It has been reported that this company is a 24-hour operation with twelve hour shifts with most workers on the job 6 days a week. You do the math that is a 72 hour work week, and that is, in my opinion, is way too much. Employees and their families live in a village at the factory and their lives revolve around producing Apple products. Working conditions are so bad supposedly that several employees have attempted suicide. They tried committing suicide by throwing themselves off the buildings. Others have died or were severely injured in accidents such as explosions. The public is outraged that there are such working conditions and that they are being allowed in China. The reason the company keeps things the way they are is to keep the prices down. Kovach makes an excellent point that the price can only be raised so much before consumers stop buying their product. It is a difficult situation because Apple’s products are the best in the industry, so we basically turn a blind eye to the unethical working conditions in the oversea factories. The company is pocketing millions of dollars every year and has $100 billion just sitting in a bank. I think that some of this money could be put towards improving working conditions and employee benefits overseas. The problem with this is that the companies are abroad and not owned by Apple and therefore they can’t make the rules. So they would have to pay Foxconn to do those things and that is what the money would be going to. Since the money would be coming out of excess profit I do not think that the price of Apple products would have to be increased a significant amount. I think consumers would still pay prices that are slightly higher because Apple simply has the best products in the market.Monday, February 27, 2012
Blog #2 - Sarah Start
The article I chose was titled “Should you feel guilty about buying you iPhone” from CNN.com by Steve Kovach and was published on January 31, 2012. The ethical issue about poor working conditions in China at the company who manufactures most of Apple’s products, Foxconn, is brought to light. It has been reported that this company is a 24-hour operation with twelve hour shifts with most workers on the job 6 days a week. You do the math that is a 72 hour work week, and that is, in my opinion, is way too much. Employees and their families live in a village at the factory and their lives revolve around producing Apple products. Working conditions are so bad supposedly that several employees have attempted suicide. They tried committing suicide by throwing themselves off the buildings. Others have died or were severely injured in accidents such as explosions. The public is outraged that there are such working conditions and that they are being allowed in China. The reason the company keeps things the way they are is to keep the prices down. Kovach makes an excellent point that the price can only be raised so much before consumers stop buying their product. It is a difficult situation because Apple’s products are the best in the industry, so we basically turn a blind eye to the unethical working conditions in the oversea factories. The company is pocketing millions of dollars every year and has $100 billion just sitting in a bank. I think that some of this money could be put towards improving working conditions and employee benefits overseas. The problem with this is that the companies are abroad and not owned by Apple and therefore they can’t make the rules. So they would have to pay Foxconn to do those things and that is what the money would be going to. Since the money would be coming out of excess profit I do not think that the price of Apple products would have to be increased a significant amount. I think consumers would still pay prices that are slightly higher because Apple simply has the best products in the market.
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Before I read this article I had no idea that any of this was going on. I completely agree with what you said about Apple, since they make the best products we just turn a blind eye to the situation. With Apple being so successful I don’t think there is any excuse that people are being forced to work in such conditions in order to produce their products. Since they are such a successful company I don’t believe that they could use the fact that they are improving these working conditions as an excuse to sell their products for a higher price. I don’t believe that there is any excuse for Apple to not solve this problem. Apple is such a wealthy company, for them to sit there and realize what working conditions these people are working in and not do anything only shows how selfish and greedy these companies are. I also believe that it is China’s responsibility to attack these companies as well.
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