There is the freedom of choice. Nobody forced those people to go and kill themselves. Why didn't they just quit? What did killing themselves solve, that quitting would not?

There is the liberty of choosing where you work, and what you do with your money.

I'd guess hopelessness. If they quitted then they would be unemployed and who knows how the welfare system is down there?

One other thing, we buy the crap from China as its about the only thing you can buy.  If you look hard enough you can find things from other countries.  Some even from the U.S.  When Sam was alive, in the 70's & 80's damn near everything in Wal-mart was U.S. made. He died and the place went to shit. And because of that all the companies now produce in China to compete or go out of business.

Just to clarify -

Foxconn is not owned by Apple. It's a factory that does farmed out jobs.

I think that any company that farms out such jobs to a country notorious for human rights violations has an obligation to see that when putting it's product out, workers are paid and treated better.... Unfortunately, they cannot force Foxconn to be humane. The market did that. But there's a fly in the ointment. We don't make things like we used to. That's done abroad. Here's some more info:

A little about Foxconn (or Hon Hai):

"Hon Hai Precision Industry may be the biggest electronics company you never heard of. The company, more commonly known by its trade name, Foxconn, is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer. It manufactures computers, consumer electronics, communications, and other products, including connectors, cable assemblies, enclosures, flat-panel displays, game consoles, motherboards, servers, and televisions. Hon Hai also provides design engineering and mechanical tooling services. The global company's customers include Apple, Cisco (linksys), Dell, Nokia, and Sony. CEO Terry Gou founded Hon Hai in 1974 to make plastic switches for TVs." - http://www.hoovers.com/company/Hon_Hai_Precision_Industry_Co_Ltd/hxjyxi-1.html

Soooo.... If you are going to penalize Apple, you'll have to penalize just about everyone else as well... Mr Gou (pronounced Gwo) is Taiwanese, and his company's factory is in China... sound familiar? The PRC sells it's major resource (labor) cheap... or will until no one else is really manufacturing. Then what will happen? I figure they'll move to the Mid-East, India or Africa. By the time they finish there, they'll move... here.

Not sure why this is "news" today, unless the nets are new. I've seen it reported and commented on in newspaper sites for at least 2 years.

Anyway, to put things into perspective, there are hundreds of thousands of employees working there. Yes, you read that correctly - hundreds of thousands. It truly is a massive facility.

While the number of suicides is definitely disturbing, the suicide rate is actually quite low given the population. Apple has been working with Foxconn for at least a year trying to improve the working conditions.

Maybe, just maybe these folks didn't have a big choice about where they work.... I don't know. I wonder what the conditions were at their work and in their lives that drove them to suicide.

I do know that they couldn't be good, whatever they were.... unless they were all prone to the depths of depression and despair that would lead to something like this, without any possibility of treatment, or anyone to notice their condition. Is this what human life comes to? They must have been in abject misery for something like this to have happened.

I live in an apartment complex, with a high rise.  The day i returned from visiting my BFF near Chicago, I walked in on a police, ambulance, and flashing red light nightmare.  "Miss Wonderful," as she liked to be called, jumped form the 14th floor and killed herself.  her body lay in the back patio, not far from a spot beneath my window.  Later, I found out that a man had jumped a week before.  (and killed himself, as well.).

The bottom line is that as 'multi-national corporations continue to use computer tech to increase profits while squeezing working people, or the un employed,  they also play musical chairs with STATES, and with NATIONS, and the masses of people will keep getting less and less of the surplus bounty that was originally touted as a way for all to have a part in the 'good life.'   Instead, we have the era of the Robber barons all over again, banksters, etc.   Thomas Jefferson wrote that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.  He was right.  

The uber-rich, and their preferred instruments, the uber-corporations, are creating a world where all nations are 'third world' nations, and they sit atop a pyramid of wealth that makes the current national debt seem like lunch money.   The rights of workers have been systematically eroded since the Reagan era.   Divide and conquer, dem- vs -reps.... twiddle dee and twiddle dum, smoke and mirrors on a scale never before imagined.   basically, until all the people not part of the 'haves' in this wonderful new (third) world order band together as one, and throw out the politicians and 'public servants'  (like most recent chairwoman of the FCC!) - the economic carnage will continue.   We are allowing a world to be made, which is inhuman, anti-antithetical to the human spirit / nature.   Most of us know this is happening, even when the sound bites confuse us.  Anyone with a conscience has a difficult time participating in the un-human machine being built.   And the creatures benefiting form all this apparently feel that 'we the people' and beneath them - and not truly as 'human' as they are.   So, some of thise being marginalized, or trapped in wage slavery, or even human chattel, know something is not right.   And some people who feel the pain of others, who have empathy, also feel helpless - and sometimes do the only thing they can do to end their pain:  they kill their nerves- and eventually, they kill themselves.  Long ago, a politician, running for office, in the USA, gave a speech about the dangers of giving corporations new power in the political arena.   (BTW, I am not a christian, but the illustration is from the speaker, not me...)  "Crucify labor on a cross of gold"   Sacrifice  disposable (non-elite) population to get even more money and power.   How many vacation mansions are enough?   How many maids do you have to have?  (IMF, spermanator).   Workers are not humans, they are a commodity to be bought, sold, traded, used, and tossed way when the uber-corp is done with the "its."  

Make no mistake. When they have eliminated the remaining laws that protect workers rights in the USA, (and the West), when they no longer have need of their slick advertising campaigns to 'buy;' the cooperation of enough voters (or scare enough old folks), the smoke and mirrors will be ended.   The curtains will drop.  The velvet glove on the android fist will be removed....   and most of us will be so disoriented, so angry, but more importantly so tired and so alone...  that we will do anything for a little food and water....including selling our little daughters....and our very souls.  This is routine in some parts of the world (Thailand)... and its already coming to a city near you.   

i know, stop bitching and do something.   Well, what do we do? 

Employers use the government's permit regulations and household registration system to intimidate and control the “guest workers”. Each worker has to apply for a permit from their local government to work in the townships. If workers do not have the money to pay for the permit, the factory will advance a loan effectively tying them to the factory and the job. In addition, employers often charge a “deposit” of between two weeks to one month's pay. If a worker's employment is terminated or they leave without managerial permission, the deposit is not returned.

In some factories, management keeps a portion of the workers' wages each month and in other cases retains the permits and identity papers—practices that are illegal but that authorities turn a blind eye to. It is a system of bonded labour. Without documentation workers cannot go back to their village, change employment or even go into the street for fear of a police identity check. Police periodically raid factories. Guest workers without permits are thrown into detention centres, and subsequently deported.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/oct2000/chin-o11.shtml

 

A march on Washington would be a good start. I know many Canadians that would join you.

Anything else I suggest would have me labeled a terrorist, but hey, Thomas Jefferson is one of my all time heroes that I quote often and the Brits labeled him a terrorist. Viva la revolucion.

"Is it a rebellion?" asked Louis XVI of the count who informed him of the fall of the Bastille.

"No, sire," came the reply. "It is a revolution."

"Terrorist" is a label the winners, and those with power sometimes put on others with whom they disagree.   Did you know, that during the Bush administration, one of the indicators that a person might be a terrorist was that the person expressed interest in the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights?  Others might call that patriotism.   

  

Corporations are our new masters to which we, all over this great planet are slaves. To divide most decent human beings to fight and die for wealth we shall never see.  It is time to release the entire earth of this great and destructive burden.

I agree. I've never understood why we need someone to tell us what to do, or why I have to spend all my prime years doing work for Big Corporation. We'd be much better off without all of it.

On an unrelated note, have you ever been to Somalia? Mogadishu is beautiful this time of year.

Quoting Elana....Well, what do we do?

idk...you must read Zinn as well....? Jefferson also said..and I am merely paraphrasing...(your statements evoke some volatile thoughts to a malaise that has long afflicted--not just our nation but the world......)

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure.

Again--a paraphrase from my college memories of Swift

We talk how the poor are plundered by the rich;

We live among the rich.

We live on the plunder and pander ideas to the rich......

....Now, once again we talk about war and how the many are poor & hungry

but we do no more--

we are not the bearers of conscience

we are the whores of reason

You query seemed deeply rhetorical..certainly provocative enough  for future discussion....