Is Apple trading its conscience for profits?

Over the weekend I've been reading quite a few articles on "moral values" when it comes to offshore production plants - especially China. The company that was targeted was Apple and the subcontractor in discussion was Foxconn in China. The article was carried on Yahoo Finance: Apple's Sweatshop Problem: 16 Hour days, ~70 cents and hour.

I was quite surprised that the article mostly talked about the poor working conditions in Foxconn in China. Some facts presented were,

• The Chinese city of Shenzhen is where most of our "crap" is made. 30 years ago, Shenzhen was a little village on a river. Now it's a city of 13 million people — bigger than New York.
• Foxconn, one of the companies that builds iPhones and iPads (and products for many other electronics companies), has a factory in Shenzhen that employs 430,000 people.
• There are 20 cafeterias at the Foxconn Shenzhen plant. They each serve 10,000 people.
• One Foxconn worker Mike Daisey interviewed, outside factory gates manned by guards with guns, was a 13-year old girl. She polished the glass of thousands of new iPhones a day.
• The 13-year old said Foxconn doesn't really check ages. There are on-site inspections, from time to time, but Foxconn always knows when they're happening. And before the inspectors arrive, Foxconn just replaces the young-looking workers with older ones.

 And quite some more stuff was written.  Although I agree that this wasn't a view that necessarily originated in that article, I believe that blaming Apple for Foxconn's problems is totally unfair. Why do I say that? Check out this closing line:

The bottom line is that iPhones and iPads cost what they do because they are built using labor practices that would be illegal in this country — because people in this country consider those practices grossly unfair.
That's not a value judgment. It's a fact.
So, next time you pick up your iPhone or iPad, ask yourself how you feel about that.

Wow! So now that's a bit too much to digest for me. Pretty much all the stuff we own comes from China and I'm pretty sure that their labor laws are not as stringent as the USA or even some countries in Europe. Why China? Even some countries in South East Asia employ workers who are paid less than $300 per month to assemble high tech gadgets. So what's the solution?  Stop buying these gadgets? Move production back to America and Europe? Could these tech companies stay competitive against rival Chinese or Taiwanese companies? I doubt so.

Again, targeting Apple seems to be the trend now. Apple "bashers" seem to me like little attention seeking children with absolutely ridiculous complaints and demands. Let's all try to put things into perspective before condemning this beautiful company which has transformed the way we talk, network and entertain ourselves. And let's not forget the huge ecosystem of entrepreneurs that this company has indirectly generated through the app store. Thoughts?

Posted in: Technology