Should You Feel Guilty Owning an iPhone?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
As they say in Texas, this is a "free trade" society. We have demanded more for less, and this is exactly what we got. As bad as we perceive our economy to be, someone on the other side of the world is making sure we get our gadget fixes at whatever cost, just so we could post our gripes about how Microsoft, Intel, Google and Apple constantly underwhelms our technological needs.
 
Not at all. If the Chinese people want to be a bunch of worker ants being stuffed into factories and working 18 hrs a day for next to nothing; then thats their choice.

They are Communists, this is the path their forefathers wanted and the path they continue to choose, and I feel no guilt buying products from them.
 
This 'think with your heart' mentality is based on fail logic. Would you rather not employ them? Employ them at higher wages and pay astronomically higher prices? Boycott the products and companies so they have to lay off their workforces?

'setup tariffs' and 'more government restrictions are not the solution' contradict each other. Economics dictates the fairness of trade-- if they have a large workforce available for production, then that is their comparative advantage..
 
[citation][nom]tayb[/nom]Given the nature of most readers on this site I can't possibly agree with this attention grabbing headline. The comments section is about to turn into an all out Apple bashing orgy from people who did not even bother to read the article. Foxconn manufacturers products for dozens of companies. Dozens. Why single out a single product from a single company especially when you know how the readers on this site are going to react to a headline like that.[/citation]
Apple gets people to click, plain and simple.
 
Should You Feel Guilty buying anything in America? There has to be a reason why things are so cheap and a large chunk economy is based on consumption. People just don't know/care WHY things are cheap.
 
[citation][nom]dman3k[/nom]Problem with Apple is not only does it cost them so little to manufacture their branded products, they also charge significantly more purely because their customers are computer idiots.[/citation]
These comments are hilarious! It's funny that people who don't use Apple products think anyone who does is an idiot. Never really understood that mindset. Maybe people use Apple products because they work really well and have the disposable income to purchase them. Also, people don't realize some of the best software out there is Mac OS X only! Pixelmator, Sequel Pro, etc...
 
[citation][nom]fourstarzzzz[/nom]Bring back jobs to the US, pay a little more, watch unemployment fall to 1%....profit?[/citation]

We will even have the very positive side effect of seeing China fail. Which would be a good thing for every western country. Screw them. We should stop importing from non-developed country altogether. Keep the money where it belong, in our pocket.

Yes I am perfectly aware that our living standard will drop significantly but keep in mind that China will starve and implode.
 
[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]Look, .... However, you can forget about bringing these jobs back to the US. Nobody here wants to work 12-hours/day, 7-days/week for $150/month. And nobody would buy (or could afford) products made here if the assembly workers were paid American wage minimums.[/citation]

I agree with you... it started from UK.. then move to the US.. and then... Japan... Taiwan, Koera... now central America/China/southeast Asia/india... then after they start raising the pay.. it will just move to another place... Africa?.. maybe... the only few time these jobs will get back to us... war!, or we are out growth by them.... maybe some other posibilities... but they are pretty thin....

If companies are aiming for cheap price and high profit... cheap labor and cheap materials are the only way to go....

Maybe someday everything will be manufatured by robots... but that mean someday those robots will ask more than just the electric or gas...😉

.
 
[citation][nom]tayb[/nom]Given the nature of most readers on this site I can't possibly agree with this attention grabbing headline. The comments section is about to turn into an all out Apple bashing orgy from people who did not even bother to read the article. Foxconn manufacturers products for dozens of companies. Dozens. Why single out a single product from a single company especially when you know how the readers on this site are going to react to a headline like that.[/citation]

Thank you for stepping above the trolling. It's much appreciated here, it doesn't happen very often 🙁
 
It would be nice if we as consumers fought to make sure that at least the workers work under better conditions...i don't think anyone should feel "guilty" about owning an apple product trust me 97% of everything we own was built under similar condintions) I do believe however that we could make our voices heard for them since are the consumers who buy such products and ask that they be allowed to work under much more humane conditions so at least on some level everybody wins but things like that rarely happen it is unfortunate
 
Many people seem to forget that there were also sweat shops in the USA as well. It is many years in the past but they existed.

China is getting a lot of negative press because it's a big country, there are bad conditions there, bad news sells, and the internet is allowing news to spread in minutes verses the years it took in the past. This negative press is good, it creates outside pressure and helps things improve, but don't forget where your country has been before.

I have cousins in China and a few of them are willing to work in these conditions. Why? It's not because they are crazy. It's because those jobs pay more then they jobs they get at home. Over there, computers are luxury items and many people are glad to have a stable job no matter how harsh it could be. A dollar US is enough money to buy food for a whole day in the city (if spend wisely) so at least they won't starve with $130 per month.

Many of these companies are getting away because they know the right people and are paying them off. Corrupt government officials are in every country, they are just much more evident in China, especially due to the media focus.
 
[citation][nom]nicklasd87[/nom]Easy solution, setup tariffs so it costs American companies more to do business in foreign countries, and at the same time loosen some of the restrictions imposed in America that hinder profits, making hiring american workers more enticing. More Government restrictions are not the solution.[/citation]


Ever study international trade at all? It's laughable that you argue for less government restriction and setting up tariffs in the same breath - those are government restrictions! I agree with the second part of your argument, but you cannot have it both ways. Tariffs have been discredited theoretically for hundreds of years and empirically over the last hundred years as economically useful methods.

I do not feel bad about Apple outsourcing to a company that has working conditions and pay not comparable to the U.S. Only if there were true conditions of slavery would this be objectionable.
 
The world is a wonderful place for some and miserable for most. We all try to find our own way to appreciate the good times, though some of us are more successful than others.
If more privileged people chose to accept their potential to be fiscally and politically responsible, the world community would change for the better almost overnight.
I appreciate this articles humanitarian perspective and I think the author wants consumers to feel empowered instead of just another brick in a corrupt, unchangeable corporate system.
 
You should feel guilty because you've given money to a company that stifles competition, prevents innovation, and blocks free markets.
 
stm1185,
Not at all. If the Chinese people want to be a bunch of worker ants being stuffed into factories and working 18 hrs a day for next to nothing; then thats their choice.

They are Communists, this is the path their forefathers wanted and the path they continue to choose, and I feel no guilt buying products from them.
Click to expand...

Wow seriously? I cannot believe you actually wrote this. There are so many things wrong with this. How do you figure they choose for it to be this way? Do you honestly think people "choose" to work in these sweatshops? Could it not be possible that they are forced to work under these conditions because that is all that is available?

You should not feel guilt for buying these products but you should feel guilty for being heartless.
 
In order to understand the situation at Foxconn, you need to look at the history. The suicide problem started for them when an employee lost a prototype or unreleased Apple product. This made the news here too. During the subsequent investigation the employee committed suicide. Foxconn felt the suicide was a result of his employment situation, so they paid the family a large sum of money. Now, others feel that if they commit suicide the company will pay their family a large sum also. This is the predicament that Foxconn is in - they tried to do the right thing for the family of the first suicide victim, but now it has encouraged other suicides. If they stop the payments, they will be criticized for being a cold money-hungry corporation. If they continue the payments, the suicides will likely continue. I don't see a good solution to this terrible situation.
 
lets reign it in, if conditions improve, so does cost of labor and goods. then instead of complaining about working conditions, everyone will complain about how expensive stuff is. Then we'll bring the price by replacing people with machinery...o wait, we'll complain about job losses...the cycle continues
 
Have to be very careful about how people handle this situation. People who don't actually know anything about these countries where labor is done so cheap, don't realize that even though child labor is horrific and should be abolished, the reality is that the 50 something cents per hour those kids make goes to poor/starving families. They NEED that 50 cents an hour.

To solve the problem, their own local governments need to fix those issues. Instead of forcing higher taxes on american companies, we should actually be banning the hire of people in countries where the labor is not being paid properly. If it comes down tot hat, the companies will pay the kids or 20 something more to keep american companies there.

Again, they can't abandon child labor, sad as it is, because those families need their children to work most likely.
 
Good article, although i think comments should have been disabled on this one to prevent the never ending apple this or ms that bs.

I do think you should have put less focus on apple. I know you were simply using them as an example, but most users (obvious by comments) do not see that, they only see the word apple and freak out that you may be calling them a bad person for owning a mac. The bias distracts from the message, no matter how good the intent was.
 
This is not an Apple or iphone thing, it isn't a Foxconn thing, it's a Chinese thing. If we decided to all just keep our old cellphones then Foxconn wouldn't have the business and these people wouldn't have the jobs, even as bad as the jobs might be. They would be working in the fields or not working at all.

I don't feel bad for buying products from a sweatshop company, I do feel bad for contributing to the unbalance of trade between the US and China. I feel bad for contributing to the profits of people like Jobs. I feel bad for buying an expensive device mainly as a toy.
 
It's the reason why I get crappy quality from Apple. It's built on cheap labor and cheap parts. I'm on my fifth iphone right now and counting.
 
[citation][nom]bob1[/nom]It's the reason why I get crappy quality from Apple. It's built on cheap labor and cheap parts. I'm on my fifth iphone right now and counting.[/citation]

And yet you keep buying them?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom