Send It On

What level of responsibility should we, the iPhone owning masses of america- feel for the working conditions and even the suicides of foxconn and other factory workers in  Shenzhen? By buying the product are we supporting the 12-16 hour shifts and making the quota higher? I believe its safe to say that most of the consumers of our most used electronics really haven’t thought about where their favorite gadget comes from or how it’s made so any article like Joel Johnson’s (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/all/1) is a good one. Awareness is a good thing- but now that more and more of the public is finding out about how their xbox is made there needs to be a culture change. I don’t think many people are going to stop buying the latest electronic product and I think that it’s silly to think that giant companies aren’t going to exploit workers in other countries. But how much responsibility should the average consumer take? At least enough to get informed about where our stuff comes from and enough to be able to inform others. The more people that know about our iphones’ origins equals more people that will want to do something about it- maybe pay more for the same product that we know was made by happy, reasonably  worked and payed employees. If we all spread even the basic knowledge that the people making our gadgets are overworked and that it shouldn’t be that way- we’re on our way to a better future- and we individually shouldn’t feel all that bad.