So I was thinking about the ethics of the new iPhone, iPad and Apple products in general. There's been a lot of press coverage lately about Foxconn, the hardware manufacturer in China which produces Apple products (amongst many others - Nintendo, Sony, Nokia, to name a few).
In the last couple of years, Foxconn has seen ten worker suicides and three attempted suicides and the sweatshop/Western greed arguments have made it back into the media circle as hot topics.
As a fan of Apple product design (usability, reliability, simplicity etc) and someone who likes to think the world should pay attention to injustices and human rights scandals, this definitely caught my interest. I love the look of the new iPhone and am sure it will build well on what is already a fine lineage of the previous three generations in true Apple style. But do I want a device that's built on the extortion of people in poor and desperate conditions?
Let's consider the facts.
In the modern technological era we are in, the global economy is heavily dependent on being able to manufacture goods in Asia where costs are lower. China itself has risen dramatically off the back of the need for Western markets to produce electronic consumer goods to a culture hungry for information-rich gadgetry to support digital lives.
Some reading suggests that Foxconn employs about 142,000 people in China. Statistically, 10 suicides in two years is lower than the average for a city of the same size. Also, the culture of 12 hour shifts and wages are not unusual in China as a whole - a country with epic unemployment problems. Foxconn is suggested as being one of the better employers in the region and the recent media attention has actually prompted them to boost wages by 66% and look into improving psychological wellbeing in its factories by providing counsellors. It may be that Foxconn has actually become one of China's better employers.
But all this is speculative and I have no real facts to work with. The wider issues here are twofold:
1) How is global politics effected by the increasing dependency on China as a political entity to provide cheap consumer goods to the West?
2) Is the Chinese work ethic something we can accept as conscientious consumers and, if not, do we have alternatives besides living the lives of Luddites?
HTC may have an answer as far as phones go as they produce their handsets in Taiwan, which has better working conditions than the Chinese mainland. It is still, however, part of the Republic of China and the long working hours and low wages (compared with Western manufacturers) still remain.
Personally, I'm not convinced Apple are the bad guys in all of this. To be financially viable as a business, they need to manufacture in line with their competitors and so this means manufacturing in Asia. Asian economies like China have grown massively thanks to Western consumer need in the last century and this rising economy has likely improved the employment issues faced by the world's most populous country - ethically this is a plus. Foxconn, compared with other manufacturers in the region, seem no worse than any other the culture and law allows and, following recent media attention, may be the best they've ever been. Also, Apple's environmental concerns in the manufacturing process are excellent - they are highly recyclable due to use of stainless steel and glass in favour of plastics and the process of manufacture itself is PVC-free, bromine-free, arsenic-free and mercury-free.
I feel Apple are being thrown under the bus by the media because they're a big target and getting bigger all of the time. They overtook Microsoft in terms of profitability in the last month and are launching two massive new products. Combine this with the economic-doom backdrop and a swathe of distaste at how controlling Apple are perceived to act as a company and how nitpicky and despotic Steve Jobs is often accused of being, and you have a great recipe for news stories.
I don't think Apple are any worse than any other technology company in terms of their ethics. And as for whether it's healthy for us socially to be so plugged into our gadgets or whether it's healthy for the West to depend so much economically on the East, these seem to be the way things are heading and nothing Apple does is likely to alter the political and social state of the world we live in.
As a computer scientist, software developer, and lover of progress, information, enlightenment, reason and connectivity; I cannot bring myself to dislike Apple because their products clearly embody so much thought, care, detail, reliability and passion. We're living in a digital age, an age of communication, collaboration and reasoning. And also of capitalism and consumerism, poverty, debt, hypocrisy and greed.
Can we justify all of our technology and the economy we built on it? I'm not sure. But I can't blame Apple for it and I don't think they're making the situation worse. Perhaps with time they will even help improve it but that remains to be seen.
So I've come full circle and asked more questions than I've answered. Any opinions then comments are most welcome :-)
In the last couple of years, Foxconn has seen ten worker suicides and three attempted suicides and the sweatshop/Western greed arguments have made it back into the media circle as hot topics.
As a fan of Apple product design (usability, reliability, simplicity etc) and someone who likes to think the world should pay attention to injustices and human rights scandals, this definitely caught my interest. I love the look of the new iPhone and am sure it will build well on what is already a fine lineage of the previous three generations in true Apple style. But do I want a device that's built on the extortion of people in poor and desperate conditions?
Let's consider the facts.
In the modern technological era we are in, the global economy is heavily dependent on being able to manufacture goods in Asia where costs are lower. China itself has risen dramatically off the back of the need for Western markets to produce electronic consumer goods to a culture hungry for information-rich gadgetry to support digital lives.
Some reading suggests that Foxconn employs about 142,000 people in China. Statistically, 10 suicides in two years is lower than the average for a city of the same size. Also, the culture of 12 hour shifts and wages are not unusual in China as a whole - a country with epic unemployment problems. Foxconn is suggested as being one of the better employers in the region and the recent media attention has actually prompted them to boost wages by 66% and look into improving psychological wellbeing in its factories by providing counsellors. It may be that Foxconn has actually become one of China's better employers.
But all this is speculative and I have no real facts to work with. The wider issues here are twofold:
1) How is global politics effected by the increasing dependency on China as a political entity to provide cheap consumer goods to the West?
2) Is the Chinese work ethic something we can accept as conscientious consumers and, if not, do we have alternatives besides living the lives of Luddites?
HTC may have an answer as far as phones go as they produce their handsets in Taiwan, which has better working conditions than the Chinese mainland. It is still, however, part of the Republic of China and the long working hours and low wages (compared with Western manufacturers) still remain.
Personally, I'm not convinced Apple are the bad guys in all of this. To be financially viable as a business, they need to manufacture in line with their competitors and so this means manufacturing in Asia. Asian economies like China have grown massively thanks to Western consumer need in the last century and this rising economy has likely improved the employment issues faced by the world's most populous country - ethically this is a plus. Foxconn, compared with other manufacturers in the region, seem no worse than any other the culture and law allows and, following recent media attention, may be the best they've ever been. Also, Apple's environmental concerns in the manufacturing process are excellent - they are highly recyclable due to use of stainless steel and glass in favour of plastics and the process of manufacture itself is PVC-free, bromine-free, arsenic-free and mercury-free.
I feel Apple are being thrown under the bus by the media because they're a big target and getting bigger all of the time. They overtook Microsoft in terms of profitability in the last month and are launching two massive new products. Combine this with the economic-doom backdrop and a swathe of distaste at how controlling Apple are perceived to act as a company and how nitpicky and despotic Steve Jobs is often accused of being, and you have a great recipe for news stories.
I don't think Apple are any worse than any other technology company in terms of their ethics. And as for whether it's healthy for us socially to be so plugged into our gadgets or whether it's healthy for the West to depend so much economically on the East, these seem to be the way things are heading and nothing Apple does is likely to alter the political and social state of the world we live in.
As a computer scientist, software developer, and lover of progress, information, enlightenment, reason and connectivity; I cannot bring myself to dislike Apple because their products clearly embody so much thought, care, detail, reliability and passion. We're living in a digital age, an age of communication, collaboration and reasoning. And also of capitalism and consumerism, poverty, debt, hypocrisy and greed.
Can we justify all of our technology and the economy we built on it? I'm not sure. But I can't blame Apple for it and I don't think they're making the situation worse. Perhaps with time they will even help improve it but that remains to be seen.
So I've come full circle and asked more questions than I've answered. Any opinions then comments are most welcome :-)