Apple, Dell, HP Comment on Foxconn Suicides

Sweatshops in China?!?! No way!

well, at least they stopped their money counting for a bit to make those comments.

Heres an idea. Give the poor bastards a break once in a while instead of working them to death. Literally.

read the book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins. He'll tell you why this is happening.

Looks like to me they're playing damage control, we all know that players like Dell don't care about their employees. The rest are all the same just plain and simple greed.

I thought it was already mentioned due to the HUGE number of employees and the suicide rate in China that these numbers were hardly abnormal and were in fact below the pace for expected suicides in the population.

Suicide rate in the US: 5.4 out of every 100000
Suicide rate for Foxconn: 3.75 out of 100000

The difference is that the US numbers (and indeed most numbers used in this comparison) are based on the number of people who have died I.E. out of every 100000 people that die, 5.4 of them take their own lives..... While the numbers at foxconn are based on an entire living population.

A more accurate assessment would be to take the number of people who have died in the last 2 months and then compare the number of people who have taken their own lives to the number of people who have died of other causes and express it as a percentage.....no one is posting those numbers though.....

kslghost

yeah but what if all those below par suicide rates we occurring in just one company?

This is a horrible thing, but foxconn doesn't make all that great stuff, and with a staff that big, chances for this kind of thing to happen increase, especially with the economic crisis.

do you know if the employee die, their entire family will receive enough compensation from Foxcoon for the rest of their life without worried about tomorrow...sound like a suicide missing for me...

Dell, seriously? They've had suicides in their own corporate HQ parking lot.

Suicide is tragic but this is not necessarily a Foxconn problem. China's (along with other North Asian countries) has high suicide rates. 13 male and 14.8 female per 100,000. Given Foxconn has ~500,000 employees they are actually below the national average.

Still its sad but as others have pointed out, there is most likely a combination of financial incentive combined with a generally bigger social problem.

I like how they play it off. They say "Oh no, really well we're going to investigate and make sure everything is being run appropriately right away. We're going to make sure everything is to our high standards we have here." It has already been made public by a spy basically "investigator", going in to the workshop himself and recording what he saw. Not only that this has been made public before for that matter.

There is no need for you to pretend you care and are going to investigate. We know, you know, what's going on at these factories. It has been going on for a long time and every time some one points it out this is the response that's given. People then think that it's ok to look away because it's being taken care of~ and it continues again..

Then again I guess that's their reason to come out and say this again huh, so we'll look the other way thinking it will be taken care of. These people won't get raises, they won't work any less of hours. They won't be told that they no longer have to sign some stupid waiver in regards to over time pay. This will continue.

Sad what money can make people do to each other.

I don't but foxconn.

How about Apple lower or remove its Apple Tax?
Yes, no body suicides in Apple but Apple fanboys die a little inside every time they buy an Apple product and they don't even know about it.

At this point there isn't really much that can be done to fix the situation. All of the companies that use Foxconn to build their products can't suddenly stop. To change manufacturers would be too costly and there really isn't another to switch to. The Chinese government is really the only body that can make Foxconn change, but why would they if any change they make would mean less money entering the country? There would have to be a worldwide boycott of all Foxconn manufactured items for any real change to occur. It's sad, but I don't think 10 suicides is going to make that happen. Maybe if it gets up to 50 or 100 will anyone really start caring?

Let me break it down for everyone "as long as we are still paying dirt and charging gold, we really dont give a crap. Afterall, that's why we are there to make money and directly impact the lives of the hundreds of thousands that slave for us. IF we really cared we pull out, but we don't so here is our fake apology. Is this going to affect my weekly check?"

THE END

Well, they have jobs. Right?
How awesome would it be if Americans made this stuff? Shame on these companies, capitol wealth = greed. Apple, Dell ect. design good stuff, so why make the good stuff in China? Are the profits really worth the pride we should have in our people to make the gadgets that rule our lives?

5.4 is the amount of suicides per death in the united states.

11.1 is the amount of suicides per year per 100,000 living in the United States.

Yes all companies should look at that matter seriously because it will affect everything.

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