NYT report: Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class

Good shit.

 

Another eye opener article in the NYT on Apple. This one about the deplorable working conditions at Chinese plants producing Apple products.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=1

 

Oh yeah, that Steve Jobs was a real saint, eh? Bastard. :

 

But...but....he wore blue jeans and a scruff beard!

 

Word on the street is that Apple will have $100 billion in cash in the bank this quarter.

I heard an analyst predict that Apple board member Al Gore will ask for a dividend for shareholders.

Instead, how about he ask that apple keep $90 billion in the bank -- and spend the $10 billion on a factory or five in the United States?

 

Why should they?

 

$17 per 12 hour long day in 6 day workweek.

$1.41 per hour or $101.52 per week for 72 hours work.

Think about that as you tap on your I Pad.

 

I've been told again and again there's no moral component to capitalism, only the efficiency of the free market.

 

Morality is a moving target with a lot depending on whose ox is gored.

It's good that Apple is getting this hand check from the NYT.

 

What did Apple do to piss off the Times?

I have to wonder if they would have emptied their gun like this if Jobs were still alive. It's not like any of this is new.

And, Apple heavily promoted the Times in their iPod & iPad adds.

 

The better question to ask is what did David Pogue do to piss off the Times.

 

I await the rebuttal from the Laissez-Faire Mustache of Global OpEd FreeMarket Truth, explaining that the average income in China is somewhere from 5000 to 10000 a year - in one unit or another, it's hard to know because things are moving so fast - and that you can get a Happy Meal in Guangzhou for 400 Yuan and that a rising tide lifts all junks and that efficiency is the endgame not the process and that it's better for everybody just to keep their foot on the gas and not look too long at anything.