I see this and wonder what is so bad compared to what they have otherwise. Then I think, I do not ever want that job. I have a feeling that this is what the corportation want for the US. Where do the factory execs live and play? Who actually owns the factory?
The whole thing is a little scary.

Remember how the horrors of war pictures were so offensive to Babs Bush's beautiful mind? I wonder about all those beautiful, oh so beautiful minds at Apple. God bless King Ludd.

The soccer field looked nice but I can't help wondering if the workers really get enough time off to play. This smacks of a photo-op to put a sweet face on an evil company. I'm sure ten minutes after the film crew left the beatings started back up.

I wonder if someone could break down the cost of an iPad. How many employees does it take to make an iPad, how long it takes to make an iPad, how much do the materials cost to make an iPad, how much the marketing budget is for them, packaging etc..

It's a very nice campus. Not being able to watch the video I wondered if the dormitories were shown? How much free time does the worker get per day, do they get breaks. Do they pay rent, and for their meals? How many shifts a day are they required to work?

There are ways to minimize the monotony for the workers. Workers can be trained for multiple tasks and rotated to different workstations, that's also valuable to employers in the event of worker shortages or illness. Multiple breaks throughout the work day, allowing for a change in position and some sort of different physical and mental activity. For really monotonous jobs a little background music goes a long way if it's chosen by the employee. Just some suggestions.

The physics of capitalism: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

'Apple stock briefly touches $600, now worth more than the rest of the US retail sector combined'
'Apple announces that it has 96 billion dollars in cash reserves..... '
'Apple worth more than Microsoft and Intel combined'
'Apple Net Worth 2011 $302.47 billion'

How much of Apple's wealth came from modern day slavery at plants like Foxconn? Back in the day, German workers proclaimed, 'We won't live in rabbit hutches.' They were referring to live and work on site Toyota plants in Japan. German workers were smart to hold their ground and are reaping the benefits today.

In more recent times, companies like Apple would not dare ask Americans to work as slaves but, as true vulture capitalists, they had no problem asking the Chinese.

Greed has killed American mythology. Foreigners don't see US as the 'Shining City upon a Hill'. We are seen for what the two tenths of one percent are doing to the rest of the world and the planet. Problem is, "We" get none of the reward, just the blame and the karma.

This is a propaganda piece by American Public Media's 'Marketplace'... which is of course carried on NPR... the modern day incarnation of Radio Free Europe. Now it's aimed squarely at the American public. Similar to producers that make Radio Free Iraq, Radio Free Afghanistan, Radio Free Cuba, Radio Free China... all 'public media' mouthpieces of the white house.

Yeah, the factory looks very clean. Computer production facilities have to be clean. How about the dorm rooms? Oh, didn't see those. How about the cafeteria? Oh, didn't show that. How about the forced overtime hours to meet production deadlines? Nope, didn't show that either. Crushed fingers and hands? Direct 1st person interviews of employees? How about discussing how these types of factories are typically run, through indentured servitude, were the employee has to pay the majority of their salary to cover food and housing costs? Hmm, didn't hear about any of that either.

The video spends a lot of time focusing on the marvels of robot assembly. Where's the focus on the laborers? Either lining up to apply for work, walking in droves to work, or playing soccer towards the end of the video.

What's your general feeling about Foxconn after watching this video? By measure of the comments here, people seem to say, "it looks like a nice place". That's the type of emotional response that should at least set off ones skeptical radar to be on the lookout for propaganda, or bias, or agenda.

How is the narration editorialized? Quote, "The work is tedious and boring. But each day hundreds of people line up outside the factory to apply for jobs here. On this day 500 applicants, many of them tired from traveling days from their home village, arrive with the hopes of working here."

Well I guess that proves it then! Foxconn can't be such a bad place after all if 500 hundred people are standing outside to apply for a job!

Propaganda alert!

For a much better representation of Chinese labor conditions, check out this documentary "China Blue". Different product, same problems. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chinablue/

These people were getting paid much less to work on the farm back home. The problem is, they are getting paid to be a machine. Back home, they were still a human being, although a very poor one. The job of a poor Chinese farmer, working sun-up to sun-down, involves 30 different tasks. Indeed, parsing OUT those tasks is the most difficult brain-teaser in their day.

I don't know what the solution is. I just know that machines eventually break. They wear down their repeating parts until they fracture, and then they are broken machines, worthless for any kind of work.

Foxconn manufactures more than just Apple products. Acer, Amazon, Dell, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and others.

"Remember how the horrors of war pictures were so offensive to Babs Bush's beautiful mind? I wonder about all those beautiful, oh so beautiful minds at.." Acer, Amazon, Dell, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and others. "God bless King Ludd."

'

Dongping Han grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China and is the author of the book, The Unknown Cultural Revolution—Life and Change in a Chinese Village, published by the Monthly Review Press. He lived in a peasant commune where there was free education for every child, dignified work, and a real sense of community for everyone. It is a first hand account which is quite different from the highly propagandized version of the Cultural Revolution that we are fed on.

Read the book--it will give you a whole different view of what China was like before the restoration of capitalism. He also describes what happened when Deng restored capitalism, how the former leaders were "disappeared" and how when he goes back to his home town now he finds that the children are basically illiterate. (He is a college professor in the US now.)

The reason that people go to the cities to work in places like this is that the decent life that was being developed in the countryside was destroyed because of the anti-communist campaign carried out by the capitalists who took over the Communist Party from within and proceeded to plunder the country, just like our 1% is doing to us. Welcome to the future!

But read the book, it will transform your view of China.

Of course, the mind of Bovine Bush is nothing that would utilize the word beautiful, So, it's likely that the others' minds are similarly defective. But, I would venture to say that this is a "beautiful" vision of putting the "barbarians" to work, in the hideous minds of the one percent.

This reminds me of California Congressman Duncan Hunter's rave review of Gitmo, especially his glowing report that detainees were being treated extraordinarily well-- e.g., being served meals of "honey glazed chicken" or "lemon baked fish," served with whole-wheat pita, various vegetables and fruit.

Apple products are the rage of #occupy and OWS members. At every rally Apple products are everywhere. So much for real conviction

"I have a feeling that this is what the corportation want for the US"

Ding ding ding! You win the cupie doll!

There was an interesting program here last week on TV, called "The Pearl Report", that talked about Chinese vocational school students who are forced to work as 'interns' in factories, including perhaps Foxconn, and others in order to pay their 'education' fees and if they don't they won't graduate. The rate they are paid is way below the official 'wage' level of real workers who themselves are exploited. This is a huge and as far as I know practically hidden work force of almost slave labor for the multinational corporations.

I found this article that talks about this issue: "the student internship, in essence, is just a way to exclude the students from being recognized as having a labour relationship to the enterprise, and thus without the protection of labour law, so that the enterprise can reduce its labour costs." http://www.amrc.org.hk/node/1179

thank god for food stamps and heating assistance.

Yes I get a tickle as well how the lefties covet their precious apples while being so quick to condemn.

My dad spent years baking toilets in kilns in Trenton NJ and he didn't jump off no roof, he just drank himself to death had a heart attack bringing a case of beer up the steps. Think of that every time you take a dump.

As I had ended up with a poor employment record I have at times ended up working on the electronic industry assembly lines, in Winnipeg and in Vancouver. The work is boring. Minimal benefits. Low wages and little future. You will be laid off quite quickly when the demand for the product drops. There is considerable turnover of employees. When you get older and your eyesight begins to lose its acuity it becomes increasingly hard to keep up with the pace of the younger workers. Mostly the employers would hire immigrant workers, and they would be mostly female. Never saw any soccer field or off hours recreation, but then the companies here were much smaller. The companies that I worked for did not have us rotating our jobs every few days, we stayed on the same boring task for months. And our low wages did not double in two years, the increases being far more modest.