I believe it is safe to say that most any consumer purchase made in the Western world, especially here in the States, comes directly from Asian labor. Anyone truly concerned about human rights within the Asian continent needs to take a long, difficult look at the manner in which we do business: the nirvana of cheap prices plus the monetary ability to buy just about anything produces a chilling nonchalance regarding the effects of those economic decisions.
The consequences are many. Obviously, we do not have the collective ability to elect politicians who put American ideals first, ie an individual’s hard work results in personal economic well-being and independence from government; that a nation addicted to government welfare inevitably leads to economic bankruptcy not only through higher taxes but also through the necessity to borrow foreign credit required to uphold a state of welfare. The business climate, too, suffers, with expatriated companies setting up shop overseas along with their profits and jobs.
Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions, but perhaps not. With the recent passing of Steve Jobs, there have been some excellent articles/commentaries on Jobs and the company he created. Suffice to say that our economic choices have dire consequences – is the high human cost in the Asian suicide rate and child labor practice worth our adulation of companies such as Apple and the genius of those like Steve Jobs? I would say not.
Yet this does not abscond the Asian continent from its own guilt and compliance in the matter. What I would like to say is the death of someone like Jobs should give us all pause towards how we choose to live, especially in economic terms. Charity begins at home. Our ability to manufacture and produce our own goods on American soil also greatly reduces the moral hazard we all face each day at the supermarket in what we purchase.
Spot on.
There’s a resurgence in the used-goods market here. Places like Salvation Army, Goodwill, Viet Vets, have retail shops doing good business. Ronald’s House Sale is this weekend. About 500 people were waiting for the doors to open today at 4. I’d love to think that the resurgence has something to do with your article’s theme. But I’m sure it’s more about making the dollar stretch farther these days.
I bought a cute little clutch at the sale tonight. The tag on the inside says, “genuine leather. made in China.”
The Apple logo has a bite out of it just like the original one that brought us the knowledge of Good and Evil. Most American businesses would kill for such a low suicide rate. If it wasn’t for Japan and China we would still be driving Studebaker’s and carrying slide rulers. What’s the alternative to Steve Jobs? Without Steve Jobs our lap-top would weigh ten pounds and cost $5,000. The one-world economy is a fact of life and no amount bloviating from Ron Paul and Michael Savage are going to change it. Fat, dumb and lazy is no way to compete.
This coming from a man who tried to fix his coffee maker with engine hose.
Yes. Steve Jobs was the answer to all the world’s problems and now that he’s dead, there’s no hope left for the rest of us. The wheel wasn’t made round till Steve Jobs came along. Obviously the workers his company exploited in Asia knew this ahead of time and have so offed themselves. Innovators like Jobs may be one in a generation, but there might be a few more floating around out there if not for Roe v Wade. I think innovator is too high a term for Jobs. He was more of a product exploiter. The technology was already there in everything Apple produced, he just made gave an alternative to the anti-Microsoft indie nut-jobs.
The underlying point I originally made was that business without morality is exploitation at best.
If Ron Paul and Savage are bloviating, then who’s the alternative – Mark Steyn? Sarah Palin?? Michelle Bachmann??? And if talking through a problem doesn’t solve it, then the neo-cons are right after all – less talk, more bombs.
In any case, you’re right, nothing ever changes. Let’s keep your generation in charge and allow the world go to hell as they see fit. (Oh, a minor point I know, but Adam & Eve didn’t bite into an apple.)
When does work become exploitation? Is all work exploitation? I see the need to protect the workers from abuses and danger and to provide a decent living (whatever that is). Third world countries are not going to accept our OSHA, EPA, overtime, minimum wage and EEOC standards. The best we could hope for is that the worst offenders be exposed and boycotted. Even cheap-ass Babba would pay a few bucks more for a toaster that wasn’t made by a ten year old who lives in a cardboard box.
I never said work. I said business.
I agree – I wouldn’t expect the Third World to play by our standards. But I would expect the First World to abide by its own standards.
“So when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make [one] wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
Whatever the fruit was, they had to bite in to it!
Babba–I never saw the metaphor in the Apple icon. how about that.
Asian manufacturing…… for years I’ve watched the Asians build molds for our manufacturing houses. First it was Kodak….every mold built in China had to be reworked to make the required part to the specifications required. No one took into account the amount of money required to fix the junky workmanship produced by the Chinese craftsmen.
Now that I’m no longer involved with the inner workings of Kodak, I find companies falling for, or should I say, forced into the same lie of getting tooling or goods made over in China to save “the expense” only to bring it back to the States to have it reworked.
A local small business owner showed me the cost of doing business here in the US versus shipping the job over to the Chinese. Its not the businesses here who find it too expensive to have competitively produced items here. On the contrary, its our State and Federal government that has slapped fees, regulations, export tariffs and “value added” taxes upon our products, in this case, tooling (molds). These added costs are what drives the cost of producing here in the US over the amount of what the Chinese can produce and ship back to the US for.
Another problem is companies are hiding the actual costs of doing business with China. Expense accounting practices don’t allow for the actual cost. Case in point, “X” amount of money is allotted to have a mold built in China. Upon receiving it (the mold) here in the US, trial runs are made finding discretion s in the product produced or the tool just won’t function as designed. Up to several months can be taken to repair the tool properly. Accounting practices place the added cost onto a different cost ledger sheet so that the real cost of building units overseas is hidden. Sometimes, as in a recent job that I’m familiar with, the cost to build, then repair the Chinese crafted item actually was much higher than building the unit here in the States. Because the costs are deceptively hidden, it appears the cost of doing business with China is cheaper. Yet in the long run, it winds up being more expensive.
Once a mold is produced and is proven, it can produce parts anywhere in the world for roughly the same amount of money. Its the Federal, State and local taxes and fees that drives the cost over and above that of the foreign producers. Its the regulations, taxes and fees that hinders the US. This is why America isn’t working and so many are out of work. Free trade isn’t free! Reform of our laws and taxation methods are desperately needed.