Destroying American Jobs (ie Kodak)

[Lamplighter]

My impression of the CBS piece was along the lines of bashing Apple,
and and it's new CEO - making the number of suicides seem outrageous.

Mike Daisey is a "performance artist", who has a one-man show.
CBS used it as an introduction: The dark side of shiny Apple products

China has finally reported some more-or-less believable numbers for their annual rate of suicides,
China is listed as # 10, about the same as some other countries (23/100,000)

FoxConn employs 400,000 and had 18 suicides in this one city - well below the national average.
A Google search reveals that others have taken issue, and facetiously said
it's safer to work at FoxConn than to live elsewhere in China.

The CBS segment did say that Apple is only one of FoxConn's contractors,
including other computer and cell phone mgfr's.

I'm not dismissing the nets and the suicides. Maybe they saved a few lives.
The interior scenes were of clean, open, and orderly production lines.

The child labor was the issue that bothered me the most,
and Apple and other corp's and and should become aggressive in addressing that issue.
(Maybe Gingrich needs some attention too !)

[Ibby]

I have it on... un-citable but quite trustworthy authority that at least some of the Foxconn suicides were dead before they ever left the roof.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

This American Life has highlighted the work of Mike Daisey telling the story of Foxconn and the Chinese people who work there building Apple stuff. Including preteen workers, chemicals that cause neurological damage, nets erected to catch suicide jumpers at the plant. CBS Sunday Morning included a piece on it yesterday, which you can read.

Can you believe American job-killing regulators sent all that to China with the jobs?

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Ibram

I have it on... un-citable but quite trustworthy authority that at least some of the Foxconn suicides were dead before they ever left the roof.

Near-sighted Zombi's or victims ?

[Ibby]

Like i said - the local party boss had his gaze set on the Foxconn plant. I can't prove this, obviously, but like I said, I definitely trust my source and the context under which it was related to me.

[Lamplighter]

Whether in self-defense or prevention mode, Apple is doing the right thing
by demonstrating corporate responsibility and leadership. Now, will/can MS et al. follow suite ?

NY Times
By CHARLES DUHIGG and NICK WINGFIELD
|February 13, 2012

Apple Asks Outside Group to Inspect Factories

<snip>
Last month, Apple released the names of 156 of its suppliers.
Two weeks later, Apple’s chief executive sent an e-mail to the company’s 65,000 employees
defending Apple’s manufacturing record while also pledging to go “deeper into the supply chain.”
And now, the company has asked an outside group
— a nonprofit financed partly by participating companies like Apple
— to publicly identify specific factories where abuses are discovered.

Corporate analysts say Apple’s shifts could incite widespread changes
throughout the electronics industry, since a lot of companies use the same suppliers.
They also said it seemed calculated to forestall the kind of public relations problems
over labor issues that in previous decades afflicted companies like Nike, Gap and Disney.

“This is a really big deal,” said Sasha Lezhnev at the Enough Project, a group focused on corporate accountability.
“The whole industry has to follow whatever Apple does.”<snip>

Apple, in a statement, said that the Fair Labor Association was an independent organization
that had been given “unrestricted access” to the company’s suppliers.
The first inspections, Apple said, were conducted on Monday
at a factory in Shenzhen, China, known as Foxconn City, one of the largest plants within China.
Human rights advocates have long said that Foxconn City’s 230,000 employees
are subjected to long hours, coerced overtime and harsh working conditions, all of which Foxconn disputes.

[TheMercenary]

The bigger question is will China let them in and to do so without minders? I doubt that.

[Lamplighter]

Merc, too many of your glasses are half-empty

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Merc, too many of your glasses are half-empty

They are all reality based. None of my glasses are half-empty.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

They are all reality based. None of my glasses are half-empty.

Wait! I see a half empty one over there! Here. I'll just drink that down for you. Ooooh, nasty!

As a matter of fact (someone please note this down in the Cellar Book of Improbable Events), I am actually in agreement with Merc on this one. I am highly skeptical of any Chinese so called co-operation. China hates the West and rightly so since long before the opium wars of the 19th century.

They must laugh at how cleverly they have switched the tables on us. Can we say "industrial mercantilism" boys and girls? China is delighted to help us disassemble our manufacturing base and ship it off to Peking where the Chinese use it to spew out shoddy consumer goods and create a nasty trade imbalance - especially with the US.

Sure, the Chinese may smile and act co-operative on the surface, but in reality, they couldn't care less and will get away with every atrocity they possibly can.

[mw451]

One Word: Polaroid

[tw]

From the IEEE Spectrum of Jan 2012:

There is a theory making the rounds that technological innovation is slowing down and thus can no longer support the economic growth we’ve come to expect. It’s not normally the sort of thing IEEE Spectrum would cover – we write about innovation rather than its absence. …

But the possibility of a tech slowdown that rattles the global economy can’t be dismissed. Look, for instance, at the dearth of fundamentally new drugs coming down the development pipeline. Or consider that the speed in which we travel are no better and are in some cases worse than they were in the 1960s.

The basic argument was set out two years ago in an e-book called “The Great Stagnation” … [Cowen] contends that our innovations increasingly consist of refinements to established technologies, most of the hatched decades or even lifetimes ago. …

Interestingly, Cowen makes a grudging exception for electronics and information technology, which continues to barrel ahead. …

But even in electronics, there are unsettling developments. The evidence, too, is in this issue. Moore’s Law – the backbone of the IT revolution – now faces by far the most onerous obstacles in its long history, and measures to keep it going are getting ever more heroic.

Noted earlier in “ Technology - see the future from history ” is why that number has so kept the IT industry innovative. It is not based in spread sheets and other lies. Instead, that parameter is based in the purpose of every business – its product.

It’s no accident that a lawyer (Kenneth C Frazier – see second of Destroying American Jobs (ie Kodak) ) is Merck’s chief executive because he subverted laws (discovery) to protect Merck from a disaster created by its previous enemy. Raymond V. Gilmartin, a business school graduate, started in 1994 (see first of Destroying American Jobs (ie Kodak)). Its no accident that this same lawyer also was complicit in the firing of Joe Paterno (see "Hail to the Lion" - Philly Inquirer) by making decisions without first learning facts. And it’s no accident that this drug company therefore is using money games to create profits rather than innovate new drugs.

Big Pharma is not driven by a product oriented parameter such as Moore’s law. Executive get massive bonuses by buying other companies and other money games. Promote a myth that money games make higher profits (as Fiorina foolishly claimed to waste HP money buying Compaq). Big Pharma may even (or intentionally) create some drug shortages to get protection from government. Big Pharma is more and more driven by profits – not the product. They even successfully got George Jr to keep domestic drug prices 40% higher – also called corporate welfare. Got a business school graduate (George Jr) to subvert the free market and innovation to protect profits.

The only source of economic growth, wealth, strength, jobs, and products is innovation. That means the boss must come from where the work gets done. One of many requirements necessary so that innovation can happen.

According to spread sheets, more profitable is to let Chinese do the innovation. Which makes job growth more difficult. But sure does enrich the elite top 1%.

Meanwhile, Kodak's buggy whip innovations created bankruptcy. Only a fool or business school graduate would think innovation, market dominance, and profits can be achieved by developing products for a declining industry. But then look who got richer by subverting even more American jobs.

Polaroid - once Dr Land died, then innovation stopped. Another trophy for the MBA Hall of Fame.

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

This American Life has highlighted the work of Mike Daisey telling the story of Foxconn and the Chinese people who work there building Apple stuff. Including preteen workers, chemicals that cause neurological damage, nets erected to catch suicide jumpers at the plant. CBS Sunday Morning included a piece on it yesterday, which you can read.

This American Life is retracting the episode.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

This American Life is retracting the episode.

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

My impression of the CBS piece was along the lines of bashing Apple,
and and it's new CEO - making the number of suicides seem outrageous.

Mike Daisey is a "performance artist", who has a one-man show.
CBS used it as an introduction: The dark side of shiny Apple products

<snip>

I'm feeling vindicated...

[glatt]

It's too bad. People will read of the retraction and think the entire story is false. That Foxconn is just fine. When the only false thing is that he claimed to meet all these real people and talk to them, when he never did. But those people (with the exception of crippled hand guy) are all real people with legitimate stories.

There really were a few underage workers. (But it's pretty rare.) There really were people hurt by chemical exposure (in a different Apple factory.)There really are nets around the dorms. (even I've seen that one.)

Daisey screwed up, and I won't defend him. But there is still a story there.