You have 13 year olds at a factory assembling Iphones. Where do these 13 year olds go back to when they are done with their 18 hour shift assembling your Iphone? Back home? Nope....back to these well kept dormitories. KYE factory dorms by The National Labor Committee, on Flickr Then between shifts they get a little break. Exhausted workers taking a break by The National Labor Committee, on Flickr Uh oh, one day the Apple company inspectors come visit the plant? All the 13 year olds are rounded up and placed on busses. Out of site...out of mind. Phony State Inspection--child workers bussed out for the day by The National Labor Committee, on Flickr Need a close up shot of the 13 year olds? Here you go. Child Workers at New Balance Party by The National Labor Committee, on Flickr Oops looks like someone's hand got mangled assembling an Ipad. Probably got stuck in the conveyor. Kaisi Worker's hand injury by The National Labor Committee, on Flickr Folks! This is disgusting and the only reason why I post these photos is to reveal the truth to all. When you trade the Apple stock or buy any kind of Apple product, this is what you are supporting. Dump your Apple fascination today. Lets send a message to Apple to stop using child labor!!!
What do you think these kids would be doing if they didn't have a job? I know it's not as nice as playing soccer from age 4-18, then going off to college, living off your folks and partying until you're 30, like we do here in the States, but you have to ask yourself what the alternative is.
After reviewing the following video, I come away disgusted and amazed that no one has said anything about this until the recent time. Obama sitting there shaking Steve Jobs hand and telling him what a success Apple is. Did anyone even care to find out who is assembling these products? At a certain point, you can't just look away. You can't look away! This is a disgrace. Why even trade this stock now? <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/V3YFGixp9Jw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
'This American Life' Retracts Show on Foxconn Working Conditions over Fabricated Claims "An accompanying press release relates a number of Daisey's claims that were shown to be false, from claims of having met workers injured by use n-hexane to an anecdote in which he described meeting a man who had had his hand mangled in equipment while producing the iPad and showing the man a functional iPad for the first time." Turns out all the claims are fabricated BS and had to be retracted. See the press release below to obtain an understanding that all the claims have been retracted including nonsense that underage workers are assembling iPhones. Retracting "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory"
I remember about 20 or 30 years ago there was something similar going on in Nepal. They had these young girls as young as 7 years old making rugs and then they were shipped to the US for sale here. All the liberals went up in arms about the child labor and they successfully boycotted the rug manufacturers and they went out of business. You want to know what happened to the girls? Because many of them were orphans and now had no job, they started prostituting. Nepal became one the biggest havens in the world for pedophiles after that because there were so many young girls willing to have sex because they couldnt get any real work because liberals were boycotting them. And my goodness...these people making our iphones are 13. They are practically adults. If our kids had jobs at 13 years old here, there would be alot less gang violence thats for sure. I'm so tired of people here in america trying to keep their sons & daughters children for as long as possible. Throughout most of the history of the world children have worked and throughout history, you were considered a man at age 13.
Interesting perspective. The only problem with your statement is that NONE of the workers are 13. The legal employment age in China is 16. Large companies like Foxconn screen very strictly for age verification because they are very much in the Chinese government and international spotlight. As I noted in my previous post, the media source that orginally brought forward these allegations about working conditions in factories where Apple products are assembled has retracted ALL the claims. Feel free to read the links at: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3477304#post3477304
Good post. Do you suppose people who start threads like these are trying to manipulate the stock price or is it misplaced genuine moral outrage?
Ah yes, the excuse made by advocates of child factory labor everywhere. What would the children be doing if they weren't working at the factory? Going to school. Child labor ended in this country only when congress made it illegal. Prior to that, you heard the same old excuses about how families would starve if they couldn't send their children to factories to work for pennies an hour. What actually happened is that, without a big supply of cheap children to hire, factories had to raise their wages and hire adults.