Weekend Open Thread > Steve Jobs dead 1 yr

Steve Jobs dead 1 yr

The Ultimate Tribute to Jobs...
Foxconn's iPhone plant "paralyzed" as thousands strike: report
»www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/···20121006

Jobs knew of the conditions at Foxconn...corporate slavery!
Enjoy your Iphone built by an Islave
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"Thanks for the dance... and cut yourself a slice'a throat! "
- Curly (HOI POLLOI, 1935)

Most of the young people who protest these sweatshops themselves would defecate bricks if working conditions were improved and the prices of their iDevices and other electronic gadgets rose accordingly.

But say Apple decided to make the iPhone in a fully automated robotic facility... I wonder how many of the same people would complain that Apple killed jobs?

But on a personal note... I am not sure how to feel about this. Yes it stinks that people work like this, but in places like China, these are the plum jobs, and without them, these people would have no work and be in deeper poverty. Yes, the working conditions are not ideal. But the low cost of labor has also made electronics more accessible to more people in the West. Remember how expensive TVs, VCRs, stereo systems and computers were in the 1970s and 1980s? We'd never have the kind of penetration with the Internet that we have today if electronic gadgetry was prohibitively expensive.
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Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge.

Why is it not "financially possible" right now? Because we have laws regarding minimum wage, overtime, child labor, pollution?

I'm sure we could out-compete the Chinese if we threw all that out the window. But do we want to?
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I may have been born yesterday, but I've spent all afternoon downtown.

reply to pnh102

reply to Linklist
Newsflash: Steve Jobs is still dead!

reply to pnh102

reply to Linklist
The last time Jobs left Apple the company near went belly up. Only to be saved when Jobs came back. Well he's not coming back this time. So I wait in anticipation of the inevitable decline of this POS company.

He ain't coming back and Apples going down!!

reply to KodiacZiller
Hog Wash... What a racist comment.

Cultural influence and aptitude are completely different things and we have plenty of "Asians" who are American in America too.

The thing is that our culture isn't putting enough emphasis on STEM topics. We'd rather watch football, basketball, et cetera. So people think those things are cool and important and not science and math.

reply to pnh102

reply to KodiacZiller
So, basically having a piece of paper gives us knowledge. False.

I would gladly give you plenty of counterexamples as to American mathematicians who have made an impact in mathematics (which is the foundation for many, many subjects including science).

And, for the record, we have the right to consider whether getting a worthless piece of paper is worth going into the hole. It's the only way to get a job in this economy, regardless of what people say about having a "marketable" skill. In my own personal experience, no place would ever give me an interview because I didn't have that damn piece of paper, even though I have plenty of marketable skills.

So, damned if I go to college, and damned if I don't go to college, one way or another it sounds like Americans JUST don't measure up. I would actually heed your opinion, except most of your opinion is nothing but conjecturing. Provide some sources, citations, some claims to back up your argument, and your conjecture would be valid.
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"We will evaluate these integrals rigorously if we can, and non-rigorously if we must".
---Victor Moll, invited talk, Tom Osler Fest (April 17, 2010)

reply to gazer
We could probably manufacture in the U.S. and be competitive, if we did not have unions. Union workers work less, provide lower quality products, take sick days when they really are not sick, protect poor performing workers, require paid union stewards who go home to drink during the workday, sabotage products to protest silly crap against their employer, etc. So while it is possible to be competitive against China, union BS here in the U.S. prevents that work from coming back. Hence our declining standard of living here and the massive U.S. debt. While unions at one time provided a much needed service, employment laws and protections have made unions obsolete and unnecessary. The are now a hinderance to jobs and economic growth.
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Atheists swear there is no Heaven, but pray there isn't a Hell.

reply to Linklist
Not that I would ever wish to be mistaken as liking Apple, but come on, you can't just blindly blame companies giving us what we demand.

Cheapest price at any cost.

If you refused to buy from China/Southeast Asia at all, and not one article or service connected to them in any fraction of participation, the result would indeed be chaos.

But in the end, it would need to be made, and it would not need to be made there, and your customer can only pay you with what they have. The companies can pay the workforce whatever they want, but if your workforce/consumer base can't afford to buy, you priced it too high eh.

A product/service will never cost more than target audience can afford.

Companies are not to blame and unions are not to blame and customers are not to blame, it's North Americans causing the problems for North Americans.

The solution is only as bitter as we have willingly made it.
The day Apple can't get anyone to afford Apple iCrap, is the day they lower the price.

reply to jduffy
Ahhh the same old anti-union lies, just a different name.

How do you explain that, as union membership has been declining, the situation is getting worse? Manufacturing is still moving offshore. It will not come back until you are willing to work for $10/day... are you saying YOU are ready to take a big pay cut?