Would you consider Apple to be a progressive company?

[LoZoccolo]

Poll question: Would you consider Apple to be a progressive company?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. The company with sweatshops in SE Asia?

That Apple?

[stranger81]

10. Bingo -- automatic disqualifier, IMHO. [n/t]

[SunnySong]

2. They have all the trappings but they are no Google thats for sure. nt

[Greyhound]

3. A typical American Corporation with a progressive label on it's package. n/t

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. Not with their overseas labor practices.

My nephew works for them and is in China half the time at the production facilities. I have heard the stories from someone who has seen it first hand.

[Yavin4]

6. No Need for Stories. Here's Actual Reporting

A spate of recent suicides at Foxconn has highlighted the concerns over working conditions inside the giant Longhua factory, where 300,000 workers assemble goods for clients including Apple, Sony, Nintendo, Dell and Nokia.





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7763699/Protest-at-Chinese-iPad-maker-Foxconn-after-11th-suicide-attempt-this-year.html

[Oregone]

5. Not a bit

Their innovation and marketing increase demand on earth's natural resources. The amount of production required to create and power all these gadgets is all part of the series of problems that will, if not addressed, lead to early human extinction

[MrScorpio]

7. It suffers from schizophrenia

In some ways, it's very forward thinking, i.e., making new products as environmentally friendly as possible.

But in other ways, Apple suffers from the exact same kind of sociopathy that inhabits every single other major corporation in the capitalist world.

[madrchsod]

8. since apple controls the apps you can use..no

censoring your choice on something you own is not progressive

[OhioChick]

9. Hell no n/t

[LatteLibertine]

11. No

You don't get things like this half right. They are just another company trying to market to a progressive niche.

We're viewed like any other segment, marks to be harvested.

[obxhead]

12. hmmm, more 'yes' answers than I expected.

Looks like I need to stock up on some extra bridges, the market looks hot!

[Hannah Bell]

13. steve jobs = anti-union.

[Xenotime]

14. Yes. I stand by them and what they have done to help the environment.

[Dreamer Tatum]

25. Agreed - it's great that they found a way to just conjure all the plastics and corrosives they use

instead of getting them from petroleum and strip-mining, like the rest of the manufacturing world.

Also great that when you're done with that iPod or iPhone (which 90% of Apple geeks are when
Steve Jobs says it's time), you just press that little button on the side and it disappears
into another dimension, with no possibility of being tossed in landfills to sit...forever.

:sarcasm:

[spanza]

15. Oh no! not Apple with its employees committing suicide in China... nt

[alfredo]

27. Their suicide rate is lower than the suicide rate throughout China.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/foremski/media-gets-its-facts-wrong-working-at-foxconn-significantly-cuts-suicide-risk/1356

Taiwanese-owned Foxconn has had seven suicides this year. That sounds like a lot, but the firm has an estimated 800,000 workers, more than 300,000 of them at a single plant in Shenzhen.

Although exact figures are hard to come by, even the most conservative estimate for China’s suicide rate is 14 per 100,000 per year (World Health Organization). In other words, Foxconn’s suicide epidemic is actually lower than China’s national average of suicides.

I checked his figures. World Health Organization suicide figures for China (1999) are 13 males and 14.8 females per 100,000 people.

Elderly (65+ years) suicide rates can be as much as 50% higher than youth (18 to 24 years), which means Foxconn’s suicide rate, with its younger workforce, should be significantly below the national average.

Let’s estimate an average of 10 suicides per 100,000 at Foxconn. Just the Shenzhen Foxconn plant alone, with its 330,000 employees, would be expected to have about 33 suicides this year, or 14 so far.


edited to add this:---------------------
The US suicide rate is 11.1% as of 2005.

[Poll_Blind]

16. Ha ha ha! HELL NO! They are the biggest hippie scam since Kashi.

PB

[Seneca]

23. Not to mention Tom's of Maine

[PBS Poll-435]

26. +95

nt

[Johonny]

17. I think it is pretty clear no company is progressive enough for DU

just about anytime this subject for any company comes up enough naysayers will appear to point out negatives. No person or company is 100 % pure and a large multinational corporation is very unlikely to remain progressively pure in the DU eyes :)

[Mudoria]

18. Not in a million years...

[Luminous Animal]

19. No more and no less than any other computer/technology toy company.

That is, not at all. I don't think that they've marketed themselves as progressive. They market themselves as young and hip.

[Major Hogwash]

20. More progressive than HP, that's for damned sure.

Just look how HP treated the computer company they bought when Carly Fiorina was their CEO.
I think HP bought Compaq, and most of the new jobs that were created there in the next few years were outsourced to India.
The merger was a disaster for HP.

Carly even bragged that they used "churning" at HP, dumping longterm employees, who had been with HP for years and years, only to hire new guys to fill this same slots -- so that HP could give them less benefits and hire them at cheaper wage rates.

[Hosnon]

21. Bwahahaha!

:rofl:

[MadBadger]

22. No, though Id say its consumers on average are more progressive

[alfredo]

24. Hell of a lot more progressive than Dell.