Comm 352 Blog 2: The Real Victim of Technology

In the technology world, there are two things consistent: risk and money. Everyone involved in the technology world knows this. For the company who makes the product, they take a risk with every product made and the product will either make money or lose money depending on the consumer. For the consumer they take a risk each time they purchase a product as it is a large investment to make for the hundreds of dollars it will cost. But there is a third group who seems to take a bigger risk and financial loss/gain for the technology the company makes and we buy--the worker. A little under a week ago it was found at 6 different Samsung factories that there were cases of worker abuse that included: unpaid labor, forced and excessive overtime hours, and physical and verbal abuse that featured workers having to be forced to stand up for 12 hours at a time. This isn't the first case of this at Samsung either as there was another report of similar allegations months ago at another Samsung factory in China. To make matters worse, Samsung isn't eh only company that has allegations of such like these. Apple's Foxconn factories in China have also come under similar allegations as was detailed in an article written in March by The Guardian in the U.K. Allegations included: more than 43% of workers reporting that they experienced or witnessed an accident at the three plants, blocked exits, faulty equipment, 46 percent of employees clocking in at 70 hours a week in December 2011 (when the max is 49 by Chinese law), unpaid over time hours, and most alarmingly, 15 suicides by there own workers since the beginning of 2010. This being a risk much more higher than the ones taken by the consumer and the company itself, as life is on the line and at the same time its for little pay. My personal opinion on how I feel toward the product is that while I do like the stuff they make, the cost of it is just too high. No one should have to suffer just to make an I-Phone and at the same time the workers should be awarded for all the effort they put into making the product that is Apple's biggest revenue driver, the same said for Samsung. There is no excuse for this, this is something that the companies need to have more control over. As cheap as it is to outsource jobs overseas, its ultimate cost of someone else' life just doesn't seem worth it. It isn't a matter of "these things happen", it can be controlled and it can be prevented, it just takes some effort to reform and rebuild these places with new, more sophisticated management. No life is worth taking over a phone people. That should be a risk that should never be taken and a cost that no one should have to pay.