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marmar

(76,985 posts)
Thu Jan 26, 2012, 10:09 AM Jan 2012

Apple Driving Workers to Threaten Mass Suicide? The Pathologies of the Modern Corporation


AlterNet / By Robert Cruickshank

Apple Driving Workers to Threaten Mass Suicide? The Pathologies of the Modern Corporation
Better technology is not sufficient to build a better society. To really change lives, corporations must use their work force to improve democracy and equality.

January 24, 2012 |


Here in my household, we are swimming in Apple products. We have four iPhones, although only three of them are currently in use. We have an iPod and an iPad. We have a MacBook and a MacBook Air (on which this post is currently being composed). We have two iBooks in storage, along with my iMac, which dates to the summer of 2000. It still boots up and works just fine.

I’m not an Apple fanboy. I just prefer products that work well, rarely ever crash, and help me create value. Apple products meet those needs perfectly, whereas most PCs I’ve used simply don't.

If those were the only things I cared about in life, I wouldn’t give those products a second thought. But there’s more to life than a functional piece of consumer electronics. Those items should exist to help me do the things in life that I want to do, to help me live a better life. They’re tools, not ends.

Even that’s not sufficient. One of my main goals in life is to build a better world, to ease suffering, end oppression, and provide equality – all in order that others may have the freedom to pursue their own dreams. A well-designed product can certainly help that process along. But what if the way that product is made actually undermines those broader goals? Suddenly, there’s a problem. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/vision/153873/apple_driving_workers_to_threaten_mass_suicide_the_pathologies_of_the_modern_corporation/



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Apple Driving Workers to Threaten Mass Suicide? The Pathologies of the Modern Corporation (Original Post) marmar Jan 2012 OP
Foxconn makes products for several companies abelenkpe Jan 2012 #1

abelenkpe

(9,933 posts)
1. Foxconn makes products for several companies
Thu Jan 26, 2012, 10:24 AM
Jan 2012

Not just Apple. Still we should question why it's ok for American companies to utilize near slave labor and still be allowed to sell their products in our country. Wasn't there a report recently that said if Americans were employed to produced the same products here the cost would be twenty percent higher? I wouldn't mind paying twenty percent more if I knew it supported our local economy and didn't involve near slave labor....

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