I look at the behemoth that is Foxconn, China, and wonder what Karl Marx would have made of it all, a Communist system providing evidence for his dictum that the inherent tendency of capital is to increase the exploitation of workers.
Hobbes has never seemed more relevant:
"No arts; no letters ; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."
Hobbes has never seemed more relevant:
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3 comments:
Only hope he didn't top himself ....
Foxconn may indeed exploit its workers, but contrary to media suggestions that they are being driven to suicide by their harsh treatment, in fact the suicide rate in its Shenzhen factory is below China's national average.
PB, I don't think we can compare the suicide rate in a company to that of the country it operates in.
Employees at Foxconn may be overworked and underpaid, but they have a stable income, a roof over their heads and three meals a day - they aren't expected to top themselves. Suicide numbers county wide will be dominated by the unemployed, drug addicts, the impoverished, and so on, and as such should, and will be, far higher than the rates within a company.
Also, the published suicide rate for China is a grosse underestimate of reality.
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