Foxconn Reportedly Making PS4s With Forced Student Labor

[Vivi22]

Unfortunately, this is how all mass produced electronics are made. People will continue to ignore it since otherwise it would cost too much.

Indeed. Anyone who doesn't realize that at least some part of every electronic device they own was made in a sweatshop under working conditions we would find appalling is being willfully naive.

Anyone who complains about this but has never lifted a finger to complain to the people who actually make these decisions would be a bit of a hypocrite. People can pretend to be as outraged as they'd like, but most of us are complicit by never so much as firing off an email demanding that companies do better, and continuing to buy the things they produce in this manner.

 

[Something Amyss]

You may want to take some time to think about exactly where your next-gen console is coming from.

Current-gen consoles were assembled/manufactured by Foxconn as well. There's a good chance parts of your PC or laptop were assembled/manufactured there. Many mobiles are assembled/manufactured there.

This has absolutely nothing to do with next-gen consoles and everything to to do with labour practices in general. In fact:

Is there any electric device that isn't made by forced Chinese labor though?

And that's the thing. We get indignant at the iPhone or the PS4, but the fact is that they produce so many things it's damn weeeeeird to see people get indignant over a single instance. To be fair, though, I don't think most people are aware.

For example:

I really try to stay clear from all things assembled at Foxconn, which is why I'll probably never own a smartphone. But is there any piece of technology that isn't assembled there? I remember reading that Apple moved it's production line from Foxconn to another company. Apple of all people. And I dislike them the most.

What did you type this up on? My last MoBo was Foxconn-assembled and I didn't even know.

It's not just mobiles.

Wait...
You're telling me the goods I buy, from 3rd World nations and/or countries with little to no regulation and massive amounts of corruption...
Is abusing their workforce?

And with labour laws in America under attack, we could be next!

You would think, that with a population of 1 billion people that the 'grapevine' would actually be very effective in spreading worthwhile pieces of information... like 'Foxconn are exploiting people (again)

You're assuming a lot of options. Options the Chinese don't have. They may be well aware, but not really have much choice in the end. Hell, other universities may be doing this.

Keep in mind that Stephen Fry pulled up statistics on Chinese labour and while his defense of Foxconn sort of falls flat, it turns out they're slightly better in terms of things like salary and suicide rate. And remember, that's not a defense of Foxconn I'm making, but an indictment of the Chinese labour laws and business practices overall.

Again, the problem comes down to this: how does one avoid such products? It's not even JUST China, but Foxconn specifically is so megalithic. Hell, they're so pervasive, we probably all have Foxconn products in our homes.

I think all of the corporate inquiries end with, "Well, we could stop it... but that would mean paying for labor. Eeehhhhh..."

Yup. Our electronics would cost slightly more. Slightly. And isn't a small cut in MSRP worth the blood of factory workers?

 

[Something Amyss]

Well that explains how Sony is able to undersell the Xbone by such a large margin.

It really doesn't. The article already mentions the Xbone, and Microsoft used Foxconn for their last console as well.

In fact, the big news story a year or two back was about the iPhone, and we all know how cheap that is....

 

[LordMonty]

Also sony and microsoft may not want cheap but they want fast, demand is so high for sony especially this sort of thing was bound to happen.

 

[geizr]

I find it interesting that this news is being met with a basic sentiment of "meh" and a couple shrugs, now that it's a game console from Sony being made by Foxconn using questionable labor practices. I remember not so long ago that when it was Apple that was reported as using Foxconn, there was a major nerd-rage meltdown all over the place. A number of people opined without haste that such practices were precisely the reason they would never buy Apple products, as they typed such opinions on a computer built of parts (and possibly the whole computer, depending) that were made in a Foxconn factory. Many of these same people were then quick to lob the good ol' "iSheep" retort with reckless abandon, using the Foxconn manufacture of Apple products as justification for such insults. I find the double standard very interesting indeed.

 

[Baresark]

I have to be honest... it sounds like a internship to me. In most internships, students are made to do things that amount to menial labor and have no bearing on their actual degree. Also, I abhor the language used here. Sounds to me like they chose to go and chose to stay there for their credits. Forced usually means held against their will in some capacity. No one is holding a gun against their heads. And it's not child labor. They are not children, they are adults in college programs. And yes, this is the plant where they installed the suicide nets, because it's clearly the most abominable company on the planet.... oh wait with a suicide rate of about 20-22 per 100k, that actually puts them far below the national average. But that aside!

No one is saying these guys aren't a bunch of dicks. I'm sure they are. But they run a massive company that employs a lot of people. They are simply doing internships the way most internships are done. I know some yahoo is going to respond to this and go, "no... noo, you know how I know.... I did an internship that actually let me work in the field tha.. that I'm studying". I'm not afraid to say, you are not the rule, you are exception. I see internships at my company all the time. All they do is clean build rooms and organize chords. They are only there for the credits, they are very hard working and the minimal they have to do in order to get their credits makes them happy. No intern is going to go and work on actual IT infrastructure, that would be the stupidest thing as most companies can't afford to have their infrastructure taken down by the intern that is going to be there that week or that month. I just can't stand the witch hunts articles about this company spawns on sites like... well like any of these. The evidence suggests that it's not actually that bad of a place to work. And this isn't changed by the fact that they are putting interns to work doing menial tasks for credits. That is done everywhere.

But, everyone can have their fun and say how horrible this place is... then go buy their Xbox One, their PS4, their latest iCrap and feel good knowing they were sticking it to this company on the internet where literally no one cares how they reason out or justify what they say.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Wow, I thought exploitative labour couldn't get any cheaper. Kudos China! I would be interested to know just how many big companies have their products made there, I expect it will be a long list of well known names.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Just for reference, 10% of Microsoft's Xbox One components are also assembled at the Foxconn plant.

10% of everything electronic is assembled at a Foxconn plant. Oh, look at this nice Intel motherboard. Cables and several of the board components have the Foxconn logo. Oh, look at this nice sleek Apple gizmo. Same.

Oh, look at this Foxconn motherboard. Bargain basement quality, but at least it's being honest.

 

[dyre]

I have to be honest... it sounds like a internship to me. In most internships, students are made to do things that amount to menial labor and have no bearing on their actual degree.

That was my reaction to it too. Heck, a ton of internships here in the US are unpaid too. Though over here we're assigned to Xerox machines and coffee makers, not PS4 assembly lines. From my time in China, I was told that China actually has a business culture that involves lots of unpaid interns that sit around and do nothing, just for a resume line, a rec letter, and ofc networking. Of course this is different, but it's just to reinforce that unpaid interns are nothing new.

Dickish stuff that they're using them for factory labor, but not nearly as dickish as some of the other stuff that goes on in China.

Though to your point about a company never allowing interns to get involved with IT infrastructure, at the last company I interned in, the IT interns did work directly with the infrastructure. One of them wrote a program that uses SQL to add/update/pull accounting entries, I think. Depends on where you work, I guess.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Is there any electric device that isn't made by forced Chinese labor though?

At this point it would probably be a shorter list to list off all the things, period, that aren't.

I mean, even goddamn Acer. They're based in Taiwan -- Taiwan, aka the Republic of China, aka the island the real Chinese government fled to when Mao took over and who should have more reason than anyone else in the entire world to refuse to do business with the PRC, and which ironically was also a popular part of the world to outsource to -- and their computers are still made in China. Fuck this shit; I'm gonna go join a commune or something.

 

[hazydawn]

Well... I'd say that's the problem of the Chinese people and their government. If I can wear clothes without giving a shit where they came from I can sleep well without thinking of Chinese students working at an internship and not getting paid.
Not gonna buy any console though >.

Edit: I'd think about it this way however, do you want a console which is manufactured by unpaid laborers not giving a shit whether they do it right?
If I was at that line I'd screw up just to mess with them.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Of course it's alright if Sony uses forced student labor to make their consoles. I bet if Microsoft did this, they'd be crucified.

 

[Pink Apocalypse]

Nets, counsellors, and exorcists. Not even joking. [a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/14/foxconn-chairman-has-sought-the-aid-of-an-exorcist-to-stop-sui/"]Exorcists[/a].

I'm somewhere between baffled and amused when stories like this (often originating from India, where you can be sued for selling a haunted house) pop up to seemingly perplex people, yet they accept prayer circles for sick people, or conservative politicians raving about the 'devil's influence' without batting an eye.

Let's spread the bemused and appalled reactions evenly. No one belief system is any more valid than another. And attempting to quantify such results in ethocentric bias at, best, and rabbit-hole thinking at worst.

 

[PsychoticHamster]

As much as this sucks,I think most of the blame can fall on China on this one. While we are partly responsible for supporting these practices by buying their products, ultimately its China's policies that allow for this to happen. Hell, even in America we have a similar but less horrible situation where people intern at places for long hours without getting paid doing menial work. The only difference is that we can quit any time without it having a huge impact on our educational goals. I would say boycott Foxconn products, but then you'd have to just abandon all forms of electronics. Its another one of those things all we can do is shake our heads at.