One of the first things that struck me was the statistic that the article brought up concerning suicides in the factories. As it turns out, of the roughly 235,000 employees at Foxconn, only 18 committed or attempted to commit suicide. If you think about it, this is actually quite staggering. As unfortunate as those deaths may be, the suicide rate at Foxconn is significantly lower than the average suicide rate in China. In other words, suicides are very rare. And if you think about it, suicide nets aren't the worst of ideas - at the very least they prevent people from making impulsive, rash decisions.
Secondly, I'd like to take another unconventional position regarding child labor. As horrid and grotesque as child labor may seem superficially, consider the circumstances under which many people in China are forced to live in. For many families, there is relatively little money for even the basic necessities, and having kids work at young ages is the only way for them to survive. I would rather have children working than starving, and although I'd rather see them learning in school, the living conditions for many people in China simply don't allow for it.
Finally, I'd just like to address these working conditions from a general perspective. Apple, like all companies, wants to make a profit. But I think what gets ignored is that there IS an incentive for them to keep their workers safe. It's never fun for a company to hire new workers, and often, during the process, money is wasted in an effort to employ somebody else. Although accidents do occur every now and then, Apple does try to keep workers from getting injured - it's just not financially sound. So I have a feeling that the extent of injuries on the job has been overblown; I mean, if injuries were really that routine, why would anyone want to work there?
What are your thoughts? Do I have any legitimate points?
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