Foxconn Workers On Strike Over iPhone 5 Production 184
itwbennett writes "That army of robotic assembly line workers we mentioned yesterday apparently can't get started soon enough. As many as 3,000-4,000 workers are on strike at Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory, upset at stricter quality control requirements with the iPhone 5 and having to work through a national holiday this week. 'According to workers, multiple iPhone 5 production lines from various factory buildings were in a state of paralysis for the entire day,' China Labor Watch said. Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo are both blocking searches in Chinese for 'Foxconn strikes.'"
Good for them! (Score:3, Insightful)
Strike, it's the only power they have. Until they get shot for being on strike that is, or run over by a tank.. this is happening in China you know..
And actually, China lets them strike because it hurts the US more than China. It's not like Apple is going to close the slave labor camps any time soon, even if they lose a few bucks.
Re:Good for them! (Score:5, Insightful)
Strike, it's the only power they have. Until they get shot for being on strike that is, or run over by a tank.. this is happening in China you know..
No, I don't know, throwing a few links would be helpful. China has few human rights when compared to developed nations, but I doubt they'd shoot random people over nothing. "Encouraging" people to not cause trouble is much more efficient in the long term (e.g. you strike you become unemployable; I'm not saying they do this, but it would work better than shooting people). And sometimes the best you can do is do nothing at all, if you push people too hard too often they might strike back.
And actually, China lets them strike because it hurts the US more than China. It's not like Apple is going to close the slave labor camps any time soon, even if they lose a few bucks.
Foxconn workers striking is troublesome for Foxconn, and on a lesser degree for Apple and China. But Apple is an important customer, so I'd bet the one hurt the most, by far, is Foxconn, they might even have to give some discounts to Apple if the strike continues for too long.
I just hope the strikers manage to get something, it's about time the Chinese people can have a share of China's amazing growth.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The Tiananmen protests were against the government, the "Communist" rule (which today is mostly just a word rather than a philosophy), and lack of free speech.
It was also, as you mention, 23 years ago.
These protests are against working conditions at a private employer. The Chinese government are also a lot more interested in foreign investment these days, and the wanton murder of unarmed workers is not a good way to let the world know they should move their business there.
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You do know that Apple recently opened up manufacturing in Brazil, right?
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So when can we expect Apple to stop supporting Foxconn, then? Ever?
Re:Good for them! (Score:4, Informative)
Who do you suppose runs the factory in Brazil?
http://www.bgr.com/2011/04/12/ipad-maker-foxconn-could-spend-12b-on-new-plants-in-brazil/ [bgr.com]
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Well, then, that answers my question.
Re:Good for them! (Score:5, Informative)
You do know that Apple recently opened up manufacturing in Brazil, right?
Apple only opened the Brazil plants because Brazil wouldn't let them sell iPhones in Brazil unless they did. Don't act like they did it out of the good of their hearts. If that law didn't exist they'd shut down the Brazilian plant faster than you can say "Saint Steve Jobs" and move it back to China.
Re:Good for them! (Score:5, Insightful)
>Apple only opened the Brazil plants because Brazil wouldn't let them sell iPhones in Brazil unless they did.
Anyone else think that we (the US) should follow Brazil's example?
I mean, there it is, a perfect example of regulation bringing manufacturing jobs back to a country. We could certainly use that right now.
Re:Good for them! (Score:5, Insightful)
How dare you speak common sense you protectionist!
While I agree with your point, I have seen anyone that tries to implement common sense laws to protect the US economy labelled and belittled by people that make more profit sending things overseas for cheap labor. If you speak common sense about an economy, you are silenced by propaganda. It's not about the people of the US any longer, it's about the top getting more at all costs (and no, I'm not referring to the upper 10%, more like the upper .1%.
I wrote an article about 20 years ago which was ignored, stating that the shipping of industrial jobs overseas would kill our economy. Hell, I was not alone by a long shot. Numerous economists, philanthropists, etc.. etc.. were already warning of it way before I was. The Ford model worked, and made us prosper. Middle class people spend their money, the upper 1% does not. This is how we get and hold our positions in the economy.
Look at Detroit and Flint. Tons of cash was there for both the upper and middle classes. Every middle class household owned 2 cars, and a mortgage. Increases in pay meant that the middle class purchased snow mobiles, boats, motorcycles, wave runners, hunting gear, fishing gear, "Big Screen TV", etc.. The middle class money tends to be very liquid.
The upper class in Detroit owned houses they rarely stayed in. They go on trips, they don't spend locally. They invest to get more money and property, they don't purchase locally and definitely nothing trivial like a snow mobile or wave runner. If they purchased a boat, it was an investment boat and again not generating money locally. That makes sense, it's how the wealthy remain wealthy and increase wealth.
The lower class in Detroit were all in line to become middle class. They stood outside the auto plants applying all the time, took shop classes, got GEDs and went to school all in hopes of getting to the middle class.
So when we sent all the middle class jobs overseas, the economy collapsed. At first, the wealthy still had money. But in short order, even they lost out. Property values dropped massively sticking everyone that owned property with huge debt and no capital. The lines stopped forming at the plants, and people started dropping like flies out of school. Now once prosperous areas in Detroit are like ghost towns.
All of these things were called out in the 80s, before NAFTA was passed and the plants were moved first to Mexico then to China. Not by me, but by countless economists gave warnings and said "DON'T DO NAFTA!". Those guys were told that they were just being protectionist, if they were heard at all.
Some solutions to the jobs problem (Score:2)
http://www.pdfernhout.net/beyond-a-jobless-recovery-knol.html [pdfernhout.net]
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If they purchased a boat, it was an investment boat
Stop. You're killing me here.
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Re:Good for them! (Score:4, Funny)
Chinese worker: $350/month.
Chinese robot (if the article is correct): $175/month.
Unionized US worker including benefits and taxes: $4000/month for doing a worse job slower.
20,000,000 iPhone users in the US paying 4x price for their phone so that 2000 can get jobs: priceless
Does the robot have t to be "Chinese" ? (Score:2)
Chinese robot (if the article is correct): $175/month.
Excuse moi.
Does the robot have to be "Chinese"?
Is the robot allowed to migrate to US of A and perhaps, get a "Green Card"?
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Anyone else think that we (the US) should follow Brazil's example?
No, too simple, and everyone did it, it would be the end of world trade.
But, there is a point in saying "you want our citizens money, then contribute something to our economy". So giving corporations a choice between various options would be a good way that solves both issues. Two immediately apparent ways are to either create jobs or pay an import tax. I'm sure there are others.
Now an import tax sounds crazy at first because, after all, it will be the local buyers and not the corporation that pays it. But
Why strike now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Couldnt they go on strike the day(s) of the holiday, just return the next day and start working?
Re:Why strike now? (Score:5, Funny)
Couldnt they go on strike the day(s) of the holiday, just return the next day and start working?
Nah. That'd mean double time and a half strike pay. It'd brick the union.
Re:Why strike now? (Score:4, Funny)
Won't someone... (Score:5, Funny)
Won't someone think of the hipsters?
this bring them up to US mid 19th century (Score:5, Interesting)
China has their army and Police -US companies had Police and Pinkertons....the workers still prevailed in the end, although much has been lost recently...
Hopefully it will not be bloody, but they deserve better than they are getting even if it means we might be paying slightly more for the next plastic POS we buy.
I'm just sayin'
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The Chinese are already unionized. There is one, national union, and membership is mandatory. All other unions are illegal.
A workers utopia!
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?
Robber baron is just another way of calling those at the the top of the food chain in a right-libertarian society.
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So you are saying that a business owner by definition never does wrong or acts immorally? I mean, you are saying that calling a business owner a robber is always
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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turns out the ipod's promise to revolutionize the way we live, only applies to its consumers.
And water is wet. I wonder why it is so mystifying that a "promise", vaguely defined as it is, made to a group of consumers, happens to apply only to that group of consumers? The previous post completely fails to understand what a promise is (even if we ignore whether such a promise actually were made). If I promise to help a friend clean their attic, I didn't just issue a blanket promise to help everyone clean their attics. It matters who the promise is made to.
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This is awesome! Fake post to slashdot, fake website for kitchen faucets...is this the intarwebs everyone else gets?
I don't have my abuse numbers anymore, can someone rid the net of this scum please?
andy
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The funny thing is that articles have been popping up about the Chinese elite worried that there might be a communist revolution. Go figure...
surprising really (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see how a country with such a large workforce can have any traction in a strike? Foxconn is a huge employer over there. Their working conditions are what most westerners would describe as "sweatshops", but then so are 95% of the rest of the manufacturing plants over there, so despite being unusual for "us", it's not at all uncommon for "them".
I wonder how long it takes for Foxconn to find another 4,000 workers willing to do the job for the pay? I simply can't believe that any of those employees weren't fully aware of what was and could be asked of them. They just want more pay for what's probably more work, and certainly longer work weeks. But if there are three people lined up behind you waiting to do that job for that pay the moment you turn your back, a strike doesn't seem like a good idea.
Strikes and unions just don't make sense for unskilled labor. And just because it's electronics doesn't make it skilled - if you're doing something that could be replaced with a robotic arm, it's not "skilled", skilled refers to mental skills, not physical.
I wish I had more insight into this "chinese holiday" thing though. I get the impression they take it a lot more seriously than we're giving them credit for. I see a lot of the chinese stores going on holiday all at once, it's obviously a widespread thing, maybe that five day vacation is their unwind time for the rest of the year in the sweatshop? In that case I think I can start to understand where it becomes a big deal. Kinda stupid of Apple to expect them to launch a new production line at that time, they had to see that one coming. I would expect them to have had a conversation with foxconn, "can you DO this?" And foxconn either adding a premium to the cost during that time, or sniveling and saying they'll make it happen, to keep their biggest customer. Oh to be a fly on the wall...
Re:surprising really (Score:5, Insightful)
There aren't that many workers lining up in China any more. Well there is in the interior, but that is not where the factories are (yet). Mass migration from the interior to the coast is no longer very practical.
When you have moved a thousand km away from home and get to see your family a few times a year, you really don't want to lose a day of holiday. You're already likely to spend a day travelling at each end of the holiday.
Anyway, the days of doing low-wage manufacturing in China are almost over. Luckily.
Re:surprising really (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, unions make far more sense for unskilled laborers. As an engineer, I don't need a union to bargain for my wages. My bargaining power lies in the fact that my skills are in short supply. Companies must pay me competitive market wages because it would take them years to train someone to replace me. Contrast that with an unskilled laborer. They have no bargaining power by themselves because, by definition, they can easily be replaced by anybody else the company hires. Only by joining with all the other unskilled workers do they gain any sort of bargaining power. A single unskilled worker threatening to quit has no real effect on a factory, but the entire group of laborers can effectively shut down the factory in the short-term.
Unions can be pretty fucked up in practice, but in theory they represent the only way unskilled laborers can gain any sort of bargaining power.
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A single unskilled worker threatening to quit has no real effect on a factory, but the entire group of laborers can effectively shut down the factory in the short-term.
And because they are unskilled in an economy where people are looking for work you can let them all go and head out to the job market to replace them.
You have to remember lock-outs are just as viable as strikes in industrial dispute. A short term loss is easily absorbed if you manage to suppress the rising cost of your workforce. It's amazing how quickly people back down when they don't bring a paycheck home at the end of the day.
Where I work this was done. The workforce threatened to strike every day and r
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And because they are unskilled in an economy where people are looking for work you can let them all go and head out to the job market to replace them.
New people still need to be shown how to do the job, even for unskilled roles. And will take a few days to get up to speed. Not a problem when you're replacing one at a time. But if they all go at once, there's no experienced ones to train the new ones. And where you're taking a workforce of thousands, even if management know how to do all the jobs, it's going to take them a long time to get a new workforce trained and up to speed.
It's amazing how quickly people back down when they don't bring a paycheck home at the end of the day.
The UK miner's strike lasted a year.
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Did not the UK miners union/guild choose to go back to work with out a new contract effectively loosing the strike and costing its members an entire years salary?
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http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3166585&cid=41567091 [slashdot.org]
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New people still need to be shown how to do the job, even for unskilled roles. And will take a few days to get up to speed. Not a problem when you're replacing one at a time. But if they all go at once, there's no experienced ones to train the new ones. And where you're taking a workforce of thousands, even if management know how to do all the jobs, it's going to take them a long time to get a new workforce trained and up to speed.
The company managed to start so they have a lot of foundation in place. The hardest thing about starting a company is not training the employees it's building the contracts with suppliers and customers. Assuming you can sort your mess out before they jump ship any productivity issues that last a few weeks will end up being a rounding error on the bottom line. End result, very short term pain, minor loss in wages, a MAJOR message to the workforce.
I can't remember which company it was but there was an operato
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Not sure if you were trying to prove your point or mine.
I'm not trying to fight any pro or anti-union argument. I was just responding to a couple of inaccuracies in your anti-union argument.
You said "It's amazing how quickly people back down when they don't bring a paycheck home at the end of the day." and thats wrong. Some strikes are long, protracted affairs. There are no general private industry lessons to be learned from the outcome of the UK miner's strike, because it was a nationalised industry, with a government that wanted to crush all unions. A whole di
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This is why we have employment laws that ban that kind of thing and force the two parties to negotiate a settlement. This isn't the 19th or even 20th century.
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It usually only works if there is a threat of violence. If you try to replace 4000 angry workers that is going to cause a big mess, which is what happened back when unions were being formed.
These days unions don't strike, because as much as they grip there isn't really that much at stake. Back in the heyday they'd have taken shots at the national guard.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Strikes and unions just don't make sense for unskilled labor. And just because it's electronics doesn't make it skilled - if you're doing something that could be replaced with a robotic arm, it's not "skilled", skilled refers to mental skills, not physical.
The factory cities are mostly staffed by people who by and large ARE the educated work force of China. Most of the miniature assembly work is semi technical and does require training. Also you are very sadly mistaken about how important the labour movement was to the low paid work force that made North America great! Sounds like you have been drinking far too much Republican coolaid and your sensibilities are really out of whack with what is really going on.
As long as we are led to believe that our so calle
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"I wish I had more insight into this "chinese holiday" thing though. I get the impression they take it a lot more seriously than we're giving them credit for. I see a lot of the chinese stores going on holiday all at once, it's obviously a widespread thing, maybe that five day vacation is their unwind time for the rest of the year in the sweatshop?"
Try this BBC video, "China's 'left behind' children growing up without parents" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19787240).
From the accompanying text: "For ma
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I think it is mostly in the US that holiday time is mainly a trip to the mall to cash in on some deep discounts. In Poland, holidays were taken seriously, with all stores closing, people getting together, having events, etc, and I imagine that might be the case in China. And don't forget that these people move far away from home to look for work. Maybe they go back to visit.
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I imagine that even if it's 'unskilled labor' you still can't take a random person off the street and have them start doing the job on the same day, at the same speed as a veteran worker.
If you give me a hoe and ask me to dig a ditch I could do it but I'd probably take ten times longer than someone who's been doing it for a living for the last five years.
So how long does it take to post an opening, hire enough people, get them up to speed on how the work is done?
If it takes ten days, would that lose you mor
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But if there are three people lined up behind you waiting to do that job for that pay the moment you turn your back, a strike doesn't seem like a good idea.
The angle that I don't think you are factoring in is the unique public image prominence of Foxconn and the iPhone5 specificly. That changes the equation as to what might be a good idea. If China sees free speech 20 years down the road, these folks might get themselves some book deals or otherwise cash in somehow. Or they'll get themselves and their loved ones in trouble. My hat is off to their courage.
Nerve Staple 'Em (Score:2)
I've said it before, and now I'm saying it again. Nerve stapling all around, or failing that, off to the punishment sphere with the lot!
1st Anniversary of Steve Jobs' Death (Score:5, Interesting)
Neat coincidence, no?
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Just wait... (Score:2)
...for the Chinese government to come in and do some hard core strike breaking any day now. Workers of the world flee in terror!
Ah, the irony of "The People's Party". Seriously, now, why do we even bother calling China a Communist country any more, it should just officially be changed to a "Totalitarian Bureaucratic Oligarchy".
maybe they're holding it wrong (Score:2)
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If you're curious, an ASUS, MSI, Toshiba, Sony, and Samsung are all now more reliable than a macbook, and at most 1/2 the price.
Citation?
Reality check (Score:2, Insightful)
Consumer disk storage is 6 cents a gig. Still a factor of 16 less than flash. As long as that ratio holds there will be no overnight takeover of the storage market by flash. Instead it's a creeping progression largely driven by the mobile market, outside of which the vast majority of mass storage being sold is still rotating disks. Sure a few geeks like me have begun to swap out their noisy, slow hard disks for ssd, but that's a few geeks. The PC market, the cloud, and enterprise storage, which together com
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Oops (Score:2)
There goes AAPL's quarter.
Quality control issues (Score:5, Informative)
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The important bit is that workers are striking not because they are against stricter quality, but because tighter quality checks meant they must work harder to produce iPhone components presumably at the same rate as earlier models.
And what better way to increase quality than to squeeze more productivity out of workers?
But Apple says they're happy! (Score:2)
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Apple doesn't obscure truth, they simply create new truth as needed. 1984 wasn't like "1984", but that was only because Apple hadn't perfected the technology yet.
Why are we still using people as labor? (Score:2)
Machines do a better job of repetitive tasks, and humans should be (if you believe all the promises made about technology a century ago) healthier, working less, and spending more time in pursuit of self-fulfillment.
It's time to liberate ourselves. Put the robots in the factories, and put the humans back on the couch (with crisps, remote control, maybe a bluetooth keyboard and game controller).
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Because the robots can't do everything ... and how do you motivate people to do the work which does have to be done? (Personally I think we should be cutting work weeks.)
Robots deserve a fair wage! (Score:2)
Quality (Score:2)
So, the US consumers (us) complain about scratches caused by rubbing keys on the iPhone 5, which probably caused the whole "stricter quality control" thing, and then turn around and complain about the stricter quality control thing?
No wonder customers are always right.
Coming soon... (Score:2)
Foxconn: Sub-Saharan Africa!
Where's Marx when you need him? (Score:2)
It's ironic that the one country in the world most in need of a Marxist revolution is "communist" China.
Blocking is useless... (Score:2)
I don't know why the Chinese government even bothers with blocking anymore...
"Hey, did you hear about the Foxconn strikes? Do you think they're real?"
"Dunno, lemme check" *looks up Foxconn stirkes*
*search blocked*
"Yep, they're real"
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But.. but.. but... I thought by boycotting Apple I was helping the workers!!
Clearly you were [if its true]. That is kind of the point of the article.
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But.. but.. but... I thought by boycotting Apple I was helping the workers!!
You know what, I totally misread the summary. It's my bad and I apologize. Please mod my post down.
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
They'll be even more unhappy once they realize that robots can do their jobs even cheaper than they can. You know it's bad when even mainstream media is picking this up. A few months ago I was watching one of those Nightline/Dateline/Whateverline evening news shows that was talking specifically about Foxconn. At the end they showed the up-and-coming robot that does the work of the Chinese workers and in half the time of a human for half the cost. The reporter asked something along the lines of "what is going to happen when businesses realize they can assemble the gadgets in the U.S. and not pay to ship them across the ocean?"
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Funny)
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Which American companies actually pay American Taxes? Not Google, Apple, Microsoft, General Electric, or any other large company that has the resources to hire good accountants. The cost of waste disposal for an assembly line probably isn't that much.
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
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That article doesn't really say quite what you're asserting that it does.
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2012/02/press_release_general_electric.php [ctj.org]
General Electric's (GE) annual SEC 10-K filing for 2011 (filed February 24, 2012) reveals that the company paid at most two percent of its $80.2 billion in U.S. pretax profits in federal income taxes over the last 10 years.
Following revelations in March 2011 that GE paid no federal income taxes in 2010 and in fact enjoyed $3.3 billion in net tax benefits, GE told AFP (3/29/2011), "GE did not pay US federal taxes last year because we did not owe any." But don't worry, GE told Dow Jones Newswires (3/28/2011), "our 2011 tax rate is slated to return to more normal levels with GE Capital's recovery."
As it turns out, however, in 2011 GE's effective federal income tax rate was only 11.3 percent, less than a third the official 35 percent corporate tax rate.
"I don't think most Americans would consider 11.3 percent, not to mention GE's long-term effective rate of 1.8 percent, to be 'normal,' " said Bob McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice. "But for GE, taxes are something to be avoided rather than paid."
Pretty sure it's the same with the other companies, but you can research it yourself.
GE is one of 280 profitable Fortune 500 companies profiled in "Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers, 2008-2010." The report shows GE is one of 30 major U.S. corporations that paid zero -- or less -- in federal income taxes in the last three years. The full report, a joint project of Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, is at http://ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/ [ctj.org].
The difference between the 47% of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes and GE, is that GE makes billions of dollars per year.
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Pretty sure it's the same with the other companies, but you can research it yourself.
No, just for the big ones. The small ones have to pay a lot more.
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget payroll taxes, fuck this doublespeak. The implication is that they don't pay any taxes, this needs to be actively combated.
FFS. Payroll taxes and State taxes do not go towards paying down the Federal Deficit.
GE does not do its part in paying the tax that would prevent the bankruptcy of America.
Your pedantry does nothing to advance a solution.
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If you had said the Federal Debt, then you'd be correct, but only because the Federal Deficit is the yearly amount we fail to collect in taxes for expenses incurred. What do you think the Federal Gov. does with your payroll taxes?
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They don't pay any payroll taxes on assembly-line robots, since robots are neither on the payroll nor indeed human.
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The eWaste is mostly from manufacturing components. Moving assembly to the U.S. won't contribute much to eWaste.
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Funny)
They'll be even more unhappy once they realize that robots can do their jobs even cheaper than they can.
Don't be silly, they'll be building the robots.
It can't be bargained with... (Score:2)
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But to be honest, I hope that both they get what they want AND the iPhone 5's quality goes up. The build quality seems to be pretty hit and miss at the moment. I'm actually thinking of buying a Samsung Galaxy 3, fragile behemoth that it is, just so I don't have to worry about getting a lemon iPhone 5.
I thought everyone was choosing the Galaxy III over the iPhone because of NFC, storage and screen size ;) No wonder Samsung is expecting to earn $7.3bn while Apple are reducing orders on chips and screens.
I hope I have satisfied your off-topic troll comment trying to spin worker abuse as a good thing, with a lie.
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I've seen a lot of people with iPhones and Samsung Galaxy S3s. Whenever I see a Galaxy S3, I think, how in the fuck can you actually USE that thing? So my question is, do you have first hand experience with the S3, and is it just too ridiculously big?
I'd rather have an Android but will gladly go to the iPhone if it means getting a rocking phone that actually fits in my pocket and doesn't make me look like a dork.
I believe that Android phones come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You may not believe it is true that there is not one true phone. Android phones come with keyboards; projectors; even larger sizes [and smaller ones]; at every price point; game pads; waterpoofing; 2 sim slots. Personally I quite like the HTC S for a good android phone with a smaller screen. ...but then this is another off topic post to try and detract from worker abuse at Apples manufactures.
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Too much choice is actually bad [businessinsider.com]. But hey. You're on a roll. Not going to stop you.
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I'd rather have an Android but will gladly go to the iPhone if it means getting a rocking phone that actually fits in my pocket and doesn't make me look like a dork.
Too late.
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I'd rather have an Android but will gladly go to the iPhone if it means getting a rocking phone that actually fits in my pocket
Maybe it's time to trade your oshkosh b'gosh for grown-up pants? You're a big kid now.
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Maybe it's time to trade your oshkosh b'gosh for grown-up pants? You're a big kid now.
As opposed to 93-pocket cargo pants, which make people really look mature.
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The butthurt is strong in this one, O Master!
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Hm...throwing fake blood on hipster iPhone 5 users...
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Unfortunately all the people that used to do that to fur wearers are the biggest Apple users now.
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And this, ladies and gents, is why I won't touch AAPL stock with a 3.048 meter pole. Fads can turn on a dime. It's absolutely unpredictable. They thrive on "cool", and if that picks up and goes, begging for it to come back just makes you look even less cool.
Re:I hope you fucking hipsters are proud (Score:5, Insightful)
Gladly. Please point me to a cell phone that is made 100% in the first world and I will immediately buy it.
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Gladly. Please point me to a cell phone that is made 100% in the first world and I will immediately buy it.
...Sony is Japanese and have there own manufacturing plants. That is not forgetting that Samsung manufacture their chips in America, Google is trying to bring manufacturing to America in the form of the Nexus Q.
It is not really that hard to find companies with manufacturing facilities where workers rights are protected, or companies trying to do the right thing...but then your not interested in that your interested in defending Apple, rather than support more ethical companies. The world would be a better p
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It is not really that hard to find companies with manufacturing facilities where workers rights are protected
I wish that were as true as you may be trying to imply. Workers' rights are rapidly going the way of the dodo bird, especially in the USA. Meanwhile countries who actually respect their workers are facing economic instability due to our runaway unchecked capitalism and the fact that some arrogant bastards on wall street damn near broke the world. This leads to even higher unemployment in countries where workers rights were respected, as their (now former) employers go to places where 18 hour work days f
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Ya'll realize the iPhones, Galaxys, HTCs, etc. are probably not only made in the same country, but in the same building, right?
Sadly there's very little choice in the matter if you want a cel phone.
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Not really. At least some S2s were made in Korea, for example. Nokias used to be made in Finland (not anymore, unfortunately).
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Ya'll realize the iPhones, Galaxys, HTCs, etc. are probably not only made in the same country, but in the same building, right?
Sadly there's very little choice in the matter if you want a cel phone.
...are you sure. I am pretty positive that Samsung manufacture their CPU's in America [supports workers rights]. HTC is a Taiwanese manufacture so most of their phones are made there, both use Google OS which famously left china for ethical reasons...and tried to bring Manufacturing back to America with the Nexus Q. That is ignoring the abuses in this instance question are about iPhones not other Phones...but the short response is the ethical consumer simply does not buy Apple products, realistic alternativ
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They left because they could not gain enough marketshare over established local brands.
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Keep in mind that Foxconn is a Taiwanese company. That said, they're engaging in the same cutthroat business practices that most Chinese companies would. The distinction is that they make some of the world's most desirable consumer electronics and they're Taiwanese. So the Chinese government is less likely to clamp down and the likelihood of the western media hearing about it is slim. Not that the Chinese government isn't eager to get this strike under control, because it doesn't bode well for them in the l
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Unless you belong to a small handful of countries, Taiwan is a part of China. Officially.
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Hipsters by definition used iPhones before it was cool. Now that everyone have one they probably have focused on not yet popular Windows Phone 8 handsets,