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Whatever. I Still Like My iPhone
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This is a provocative piece by investigative reporters Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele that points out how Apple's masive success came at the expense of American jobs. Under pressure from Wall Street, Apple stopped making products in the U.S. and moved production to glorified sweatshops in China, where workers are forced to do 10- to 12-hour shifts of repetitive tasks, can't even go to the bathroom without a guard's permission, and are berated by supervisors to the point of suicide. But it helped Apple's profit margin, so there's that. Now, the article ignores a few other things: Apple DOES employ a LOT of Americans, and the margins have something to do with the company's ability to have a retail chain that employs people and is successful. And the workers losing their jobs are not skilled for anything that can't be replaced not just by outsourcing but by automation; assembly-line jobs and supervisors of those jobs are disappearing in every industry. Times changed, and it's up for debate whether American companies should be tied to old business models to preserve jobs that have been made redundant. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
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