The True Cost of Technology

[Andara Bledin]

So, Foxconn is in the news, yet again.

Article at WSJ:
Explosion Kills 2 at Foxconn Plant

They've ruled out human intervention (aka: it wasn't foul play), and are still investigating the cause, which appears to have occurred in a polishing room.

Two workers are confirmed dead and 16 more are injured.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

I'm not sure what high technology has to do with it, other than chance: a sugar plant exploded here a couple years ago, and sugar is about as low-tech a product as you can get.

[Andara Bledin]

It's not the what, but the who. Foxconn can't seem to stay out of the news, from employee suicides, to reports of employee abuse.

We all want our gadgets, and we want them now, and we want them cheap. And because we won't put up with our own people being treated like this, we outsource our production to places that don't really put any value on their workers because the thought is that there are plenty more where they came from, and as bad as conditions are, they're still better than where they came from.

^-.-^

[Boozy]

It's not the what, but the who. Foxconn can't seem to stay out of the news, from employee suicides, to reports of employee abuse.

I think that might be confirmation bias at work. You've got Foxconn on your mind, so now it seems like you're hearing about it everywhere.

[Ginger Tea]

I think that might be confirmation bias at work. You've got Foxconn on your mind, so now it seems like you're hearing about it everywhere.

I agree, this and the above comment about a sugar plant exploding.

Say the sugar plant had more fatalities, no one would be rallying behind the cause of sugar free/alternatives becaues of it.
If an elevator crashed killing 8 Foxconn executives, most anti foxconn people would probably (even if secretly) cheer.

If it wasn't foxconn but another factory that no one had heard of, or had a beef with, deaths would be reported, but probably only in the local newspapers and affiliate websites.