Wave of Suicides at Foxconn’s Shenzhen plant

Is this the future of the American worker ?

We owe much of our current standard of living to those who came before us and forced both government and business management to recognise the need for a worker to make a fair wage and be respected by thier superiors at work.

Henry Ford may have said it best when he defended paying his workers more than others in the fledgling auto industry. Ford is said to have told others that he had to pay his employees enough to be able to afford to buy his cars or his business would not survive very long.

Much of the jobs which built up the economy in the U S have been moved offshore in search of lower wages but did not carry with them the respect which should be afforded workers everywhere.

I can't say absolutely this is the cause for the suicides, but there is a record of worker abuse, as well as safety issues, in China.

Link to the article here:

www.speroforum.com...

Even so, the company has decided to take countermeasures, putting up safety nets around its buildings to make suicide harder to carry out, and sending a memo asking workers to sign a pledge not to hurt themselves in an extreme manner.

i have had some jobs where i felt like jumping out of a building. But this, this is really happening. I guess that the fact they are working for peanuts, under no doubt lots of pressure to preform, the fact they likely work for long hours and have very little to show for it might be a reason.

sometimes though, sadly, when one person commits suicide it can trigger a few others. If we didnt all live under a capatilist material world, maybe we wouldn't all feel like crap. Just think how you or me wants a new pair of shoes, cause perhaps our old ones no longer have that new look to them? we might save or have the cash to get them. Imagine being forced to make those shoes for a few pence and knowing people like us are paying about a hundred quid for them. You would feel pretty low. I cant begin to imagine how these people get by day to day

To the average American this doesn't matter. They get to buy cheap electronics and thats all that matters. It doesn't matter if slave-wage labor is being used to build it and committing suicide to escape their fate. It doesn't matter that the use of slave-wage labor in China meant ZERO jobs in the United States. I defy anyone to go out and try to buy a computer MADE (not assembled) in the United States. They don't exist. Now go back to sleep.

reply to post by ararisq


Well said, and understood.

It's this "go back to sleep" part continues to cause me a problem. Don't you think it's time we woke up?

I tried for years to live by a motto: "If an American don't make it -- an American don't need it."

I finally gave up on this when I could no longer find anything made in U S A.

DA&N the price, I just want to by our stuff.

reply to post by ararisq


Thats enough!
Your saying that when people half way across the planet die its the fault of the USA?
What a crock!
Blaming the USA for Everything is just as slumberous as you are saying we are.
Australia, UK, Spain, ...literally every country buys electronics. Not just US.
I can appreciate a good political bashing as much as the next person, but blaming these poor people's misery on only one thing or country is closed minded.
Wake up, the USA isn't too blame for everything.

Originally posted by MissPoovey
Thats enough!
Your saying that when people half way across the planet die its the fault of the USA?
What a crock!
Blaming the USA for Everything is just as slumberous as you are saying we are.
Australia, UK, Spain, ...literally every country buys electronics. Not just US.
I can appreciate a good political bashing as much as the next person, but blaming these poor people's misery on only one thing or country is closed minded.
Wake up, the USA isn't too blame for everything.

I am absolutely and its not enough, more people need to wake up and realize this. You have a point that they're fates might be the same without the United States but we are no better than northerners buying cotton from the south during the era of slavery running around complaining about slavery while wearing their cheap cotton clothing.

You have to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.