A needlessly provocative headline, you're thinking, but justified, I believe.
The downside to being almost universally loved is being singularly hated.
This is what Apple faces now that its profits have reached the stratosphere. And its profits that matter because conditions in Chinese factories have long been very well known and are far worse in places other than inside Foxconn-run Chinese factories.
Yet Apple is only now being singled out because "Apple plants" use "slave labor". The latest example from the normally insightful and highly rational Farhod Manjoo:
Last week, Apple reported one of the most amazing earning results in corporate history. During the last three months of 2011, the company made $13 billion in profit—more than twice as much as it earned during the same period in 2010, and more than just about any company has ever earned during a single financial quarter
Manjoo begins, tellingly, not with China, Chinese, factories or anything other than Apple's profits.
Next, Manjoo focuses on...iPhone profits!
Apple’s revenue on the iPhone alone exceeded Microsoft’s revenue from all its operations, and its likely profits on the iPhone—estimated to be nearly $9 billion—topped overall profits from Google, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, and nearly every other company in the world.
Then, Manjoo jumps from Apple's profits to Apple's customers:
Apple’s production practices have been a subject of consternation for several years. In 2010, after a spate of suicides at Foxconn, Apple’s primary manufacturing contractor, I argued that all of Apple’s customers bear a moral responsibility to push the company to improve its working practices.
There is nothing provided to justify why *Apple's customers* bear a moral responsibility.
Firstly, aren't us Apple customers pumping money -- billions of American dollars -- into China? Isn't the actual government of China subsidizing numerous in-China factories employing Chinese workers to build Apple devices for Apple customers.
This is a good thing, right? Manjoo thinks otherwise, which is his right. What is not right, of course, is to first single out Apple than single out Apple customers for a "moral" failing.
Why not include Xbox customers? Asus customers? Every business that purchased a Lenovo computer? Anyone that owns an HP? A Dell? What kind of blind irrational nonsense would lead someone to single out Apple customers?
In the last few weeks, two journalistic accounts have brought renewed attention to Apple’s factories.
Are these "Apple factories"? Are the conditions in these "Apple factories" worse than the norm? Worse than others in use, such as by Samsung, for example, or Motorola?
Why does "Apple" make people say and think stupid stuff?
When working conditions are pitted against the bottom line, it always chooses profits over people. It’s time for Apple to change that.
I call bullshit. Justify this. Do not simply link to a New York Times story. Explain to me how Apple "always chooses profits over people." You have a reputation, Manjoo, and not one bulit on hyperbolic nonsense.
Forget any other companies that may be doing exactly the same as Apple in this instance. Justify your own words...
CEO Tim Cook should launch a long-term plan to completely remake Chinese contract manufacturing—a plan that improves factory conditions, raises wages, and, over the long run, reduces the number of workers needed to make electronics.
I think this is a shockingly naive, borderline stupid statement.
Apple should "remake Chinese contract manufacturing"? What absolute dumb bullshit.
Can Apple remake manufacturing in the US!
China is a nation of over 1 billion people, run by a communist government, with an annual GDP of over $7 trillion US dollars.
$7 trillion.
But Apple is going to remake how the Chinese people work? What xenophobic horseshit. If Manjoo says Apple should leave China, for example, or simply states that Apple should demand changes, using its economic leverage, and than move to Malaysia, say, or Brazil, if Foxconn and the People's Republic of China do not comply, fair enough.
The notion that Apple can shift China is simply one of the worst cases of Apple Derangement Syndrome I've witnessed in a long time.
While there is no evidence to suggest that Apple’s factories are any worse than those of its competitors—in fact, many of them use the same contractors to make their devices—no company benefits more from low-cost Chinese labor than Apple. If it continues to deliver monster earnings, scrutiny of its factories isn’t going to stop.
Finally, acknowledgement that these aren't really "Apple factories" and that stating so earlier was bullshit. But again, there's that whole "profit" issue.
"No company benefits more from low-cost labor than Apple."
Prove this.
Yes, Apple earns the most profits. But companies (and platforms) that sell *more* devices using *more* Chinese labor actually benefit *more* from low-cost Chinese workers. Those same workers that build Apple devices can and do build devices for Microsoft and HP, for example. Those companies do not have the profits Apple has -- and this is not because of *the exact same labor*.
Manjoo must know this, right? Than why state otherwise?
But merely improving working conditions is only a short-term fix. The larger problem for the tech industry is that, in terms of human toil, today’s manufacturing methods are unsustainable. There are 200,000 people on the iPhone assembly line alone. The work is dull, repetitive, dangerous, and low-paying.
Foxconn’s executives have suggested that their long-term goal is to get humans out of the process completely. By 2013, the company plans to install a million robots at its plants, and as industrial artificial intelligence improves, it will surely rely more on machines than men and women.
Okay, good. This bit makes some sense and I'm prepared to accept that Manjoo just had his Apple blinders on and that's why all the above was so stupid.
Get the workers -- the labor -- out of the equation. Go with robots. Robots paid for by Apple, it should be noted.
I'm all for this. Apple can put more money into aggressively disintermediating Chinese labor. Only, wait. Does that make things better or worse for those 1 billion poor Chinese?
With its vast resources, Apple could speed up this trend by investing billions in robotic factories. This, of course, raises another ethical dilemma—is it really humane to replace human workers with machines? As awful as working conditions at Foxconn might seem to Americans, the jobs are prized in China. If pushing for improved conditions results in more automation—and, thus, fewer jobs—are we really doing those workers a favor?
What the fuck?
Is Manjoo actually telling us to ignore everything he's written? That the very solution, a solution he proposes, may actually not help? Now I'm just lost. What is he saying?
Manjoo ends with:
Apple would be wise to invest in that future. When your iPad is made by a robot, you’ll finally have nothing to feel guilty about.
Okay, so we've arrived at: Apple should give Foxconn more of its money to put robots in the factories and displace the hundreds of thousands of human beings now building Apple devices. That will liberate me -- and him -- of our collective guilt.
Only, is our guilt the issue? I think this last sentence is probably the most revealing. Manjoo has no (rational) solutions. He just wants his guilt to be assuaged. Perhaps you do as well. Only, guilt, dear reader, probably will do no one any actual good. It will only allow us to more easily ignore reality.
Which is easy, I understand, but not productive.
Manjoo had an opportunity here to offer helpful suggestions and propose workable solutions to a difficult problem. Instead, he pointed his finger at the richest company, blamed them and no one else, than told each of us that if we can turn our eyes for only a few more years, we can then release ourselves from the guilt.
Fail.
