With globalization in full swing and the pistons of industry firing around the world, we are frequently confronted with questions posed about working conditions in factories and mines around the world where our handy gadgets originate. Joel Johnson asks us to think about how much we, as consumers, are to blame for some of the horrid working conditions which plague factories that manufacture the very gadgets that have become an essential part of our daily lives.
There is no doubt that working conditions in some of these factories are questionable. Yet, must we feel so much guilt about it? Can we not take two steps without being put on a guilt trip by someone who lectures us about the conditions in which our devices are made, typing from the very computer or tablet he or she criticizes others for using? This is unreasonable.
Did you know that western countries are not the only countries that use smart-phones, high-end electronics, and computers? In fact, the Asian market–where many of these products originate–is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, with a rapidly-growing consumer base. The idea that western consumption–specifically American consumption–is the only thing that drives the massive manufacturing sector in countries like China and Thailand is unfounded.
According to the Economic Times (a publication of the India Times) as of August 30, 2011, the number of mobile phone users in China alone stood at 929 million people. That’s nearly three times the population of the United States alone.
See it here:
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-08-30/news/29945263_1_phone-users-number-of-cell-phone-mobile-phone
Addressing the aspect of worker suicides, it is right that Foxconn should be concerned about them. Yet, given the relatively low number of suicides among employees, there may be a host of other factors involved that may not necessarily have to do with working conditions. Worker suicides should not be used as a starting point for discussions on working conditions – working conditions should be used as a starting point for discussion.
What do we make of this information? Should we be concerned about working conditions in these factories? Of course we should be concerned, but the idea that we should harbor some form of first-world guilt over employee suicides is silly, especially since our consumption dollars are giving people jobs that provides housing and food in a job market where many alternatives are worse. Attempting to put western consumers on a guilt trip and blaming western consumption for employee suicides is not the way to start a discussion as serious as this.