
Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China - dekayed
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/business/signs-of-changes-taking-hold-in-electronics-factories-in-china.html
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gregpilling
Henry Ford was the Foxconn of his day. When the average turnover at his
factories dropped to 9 months because people would leave over low pay and bad
work conditions to go work at another automaker, he implemented the $5 day. It
roughly doubled pay for the workers at the time but it came with a cost. The
workers had to have their home life inspected, couldn't be drunks, drug users
or abusive to their spouses, their kids had to be in school - essentially he
used the wage increase to give license to tighter screening of employees lives
both at work and home.

It worked, productivity went up, lots of free press, and sales went up. The
common belief was the raise was about the worker being able to buy his own
car, but there was more to the story. I recommend "Wheels for the World" as an
excellent book about this. [http://www.amazon.com/Wheels-World-Company-
Century-Progress/...](http://www.amazon.com/Wheels-World-Company-Century-
Progress/dp/B000BZ99PQ)

~~~
derleth
It was progressive compared to the attitudes of a century earlier:

"Poverty ... is a most necessary and indispensable ingredient in society,
without which nations and communities could not exist in a state of
civilisation. It is the lot of man – it is the source of wealth, since without
poverty there would be no labour, and without labour there could be no riches,
no refinement, no comfort, and no benefit to those who may be possessed of
wealth." — Patrick Colquhoun, 1806

Also, there was a simpler argument against a decent wage: If you give Those
Sorts any more than the bare minimum needed to keep body and soul together,
they'll just squander it on loose women, drink, and riotous behavior, leading
to the decay of the family and the end of our Christian society. Fighting for
the eight-hour workday amounted to fighting against this perception.

> The eight-hour day, another said, would encourage "loafing and gambling,
> rioting, debauchery, and drunkenness."

<http://www.dickmeister.com/id368.html>

~~~
camus
I.E "i'm rich because you are poorer than me". It's not about wealth , it is
about human nature , domination and power. There is enough wealth in this
world for the rich to be still filthy rich and the poor to live a decent life
and have an education. But wealth is a mean of domination, by keeping people
poor you can make them desperate and enslave them.

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jwongpp
This is great news, and is what progress looks like.

Even if you look back towards the start of these factories, the jobs they have
been offering are better than subsistence farming. They're not pleasant by
Western standards, and they're not something you'd want people to have to do,
but they are progress. That's why foxconn has no trouble finding staff.

Now, as these industries have been built where seeing standards improve. This
is progress, and this is capitalism lifting hundreds of thousands (if not
millions) out of poverty.

~~~
henrikschroder
[http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-week/leading-
article/8789981/...](http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-week/leading-
article/8789981/glad-tidings/)

"In 1990, the UN announced Millennium Development Goals, the first of which
was to halve the number of people in extreme poverty by 2015. It emerged this
year that the target was met in 2008. Yet the achievement did not merit an
official announcement, presumably because it was not achieved by any
government scheme but by the pace of global capitalism."

For some, this is a very uncomfortable fact.

~~~
altcognito
That's because some draw the conclusion that capitalism does not exist with a
progressive tax rate, environmental laws, unions, or universal health care.
It's a ridiculous proposition, but that's what some people believe.

------
Someone
For comparison: [http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-
mcclelland-f...](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-
free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor):

"Even more than you are hurting the company, a voice-over intones as animated
people do things like accidentally oversleep, you are hurting yourself when
you are late because you will be penalized on a point system, and when you get
too many points, you're fired—unless you're late at any point during your
first week, in which case you are instantly fired"

*There are transition points in the warehouse floor where the footing is uneven, and people trip and sprain ankles. Give forklifts that are raised up several stories to access products a wide berth: "If a pallet falls on you, you won't be working with us anymore." Watch your fingers around the conveyor belts that run waist-high throughout the entire facility. People lose fingers."

10+hour shifts, net $60 a day, in the USA.

~~~
tsotha
$60 a day would be a dream wage in China.

~~~
cafard
Right, but food etc. costs of China would be a dream in the US.

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ChuckMcM
Will be interesting to watch the fallout from these changes.

~~~
acgourley
I don't think it will be perceptible to most people - the cost of goods will
rise relative to their usual decline, but it will still be a decline.

~~~
greenyoda
The cost of goods might not even rise. Employees who are stressed, overworked
and in pain probably have higher defect rates and turnover than employees who
are treated more humanely.

