[citation][nom]lumberjack86[/nom]Apple made 13 billion in 1 quarter of the year. If they took 1 billion out of that converted it into yuan and paid the 230 thousand workers at Foxconn it would more than double their yearly salary. They currently make 24 thousand yuan a year, that 1 billion would pay each worker an extra 27 thousand yuan a year. It is literally a drop in the bucket for a company like Apple to do something like this and if they did it would make everybody a lot happier.[/citation]
Exactly, they wouldn't even have to raise the price. I am sure they would anyways, because that is the type of company Apple is (which is why they won't make Foxconn improve conditions in the first place).
Seriously though, this trade system ONLY benefits the corporations. It is not a benefit to America that we get cheap electronics, because now we have no jobs and our economy is crashing. It is not a benefit to Chinese workers to make us these cheap electronics, because their job has horrific work conditions and they don't even get paid enough to live off of what they go through, much less even afford to buy the freaking things that they are building.
We NEED to stop buying things made in third-world countries. It does not help their economy or living conditions and it kills ours. They are just being taken advantage of by corporations, just like we are. What would help the Chinese people is to set up a government that guarantees human rights, just as we used to have, and to build local economies, just like we used to have (you know, when we were prospering instead of slowly choking to death).