I am a self-proclaimed Apple geek. I have gone through several iPods; on my second MacBook, and looking forward to the day when I can afford the latest Apple innovation, the iPad. My loyalty to the brand is based on my satisfaction with customer service. No other computer compares to the product's durability, features, and adaptability. I am not alone in my appreciation for Mac products, an article published on CNN's, Fortune, website reported that Apple is projected to have a growth rate of 25-30% through each year to 2015 (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/23/piper-jaffray-apple-earnings-set-grow-25-30-per-year-through-2015/?section=magazines_fortune). The retail value of my MacBook was a little over $1,000, a price millions of people pay per year for, one of many, on the line of Apple products.
In 2006, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, earned a report $646 million dollars in compensation from Apple (http://www.marvquin.com/blog/ceo-salaries-and-executive-compensation-defined). In the article, “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 Karl Marx Estranged Labour”, the author explains the relationship between a production and laborer. In his theory he criticizes capitalism which is defined as an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for a private profit. In the interest of capitalism many companies resort to outsourcing, which, in this case, is acquiring a product or service from foreign countries such as China.
Foxconn Technology Group, which manufactures Apple Inc.’s iPad, is expanding in cities throughout China. A recent businessweek article reported that Foxconn, an employee owned business, is expect to expand from 100 to 500 stores by the end of the year. The organization is also expecting to hire 400 personnel to accommodate the expansion. As companies in China grow to keep up with the demand for Apple's iPad, and with all the prosperity Apple products have brought to the corporation and corporate heads, there are many workers who are victims of harsh, minimum pay, working conditions. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-20/foxconn-hiring-workers-to-expand-chinese-employee-run-stores.html
China is infamously known for "sweatshop labor conditions" in workplaces (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05sweatshop.html). The manufacturing process of an Apple product may have taken place in labor industries as described above. According to Marx’s theory, people are estranged from products they helped produced. Many of the Chinese workers, though work countless hours perfecting a popular product such as the iPad, are making less than what is needed to support a family. According to Marx "wages are only a necessary consequence of the estrangement of labour." Though people are paid wages for their services it is only a means to brainwashing people out of their attachment or entitlement to the product they are making. Many workers, though responsible for the existence of Apple products, most would never be able to afford the retail value. In the United States, companies capitalize on the practice of outsourcing for the benefit of avoiding labor laws. Here we have minimum wages laws but in countries like China, people are making maybe a dollar-a-day for long work hours while CEO’s here in the US makes millions of dollars per year. The people working countries without laws protecting them have no way of escaping. Some have taken their own lives due to harsh working conditions. I wonder if Mr. Job ever considered suicide because of work?
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