Apple’s factory, Foxconn in Shenzhen, southern China, used to employ around 400,000 18-20 year old workers. Now, this number has dropped significantly. Well, why is that? Workers at this factory, in particular, have been exploited to an extent that your human mind cannot comprehend. They have been suffering from terrible working conditions, such as having to share a room in the dormitories with 23 other people, working TRIPLE the maximum number of hours Apple indicates in its employee contract, constantly humiliated and undignified if they disobey any orders, and rarely get any breaks. Anyways, so you get the point by now, the workers were severely exploited to the extent that some of them even committed suicide. Still however, the question remains, how does Apple get away with this? I bet so many people have read this article on their iPhones and felt bad while reading it, but then just disregarded it and continued surfing the internet, still on their iPhones which were made by these young adults who are being abused (well I know I am one of those people anyways).. How come Apple’s image was not ruined after this? Why was it not brought to justice? This shows the lack of awareness that most consumers have about ethical concerns, and the company’s carelessness towards this issue. Surely, there is a more ethical way for Apple to be more productive and innovative without exploiting its workers so badly, which will backfire on Apple on the long-run.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/apr/30/apple-chinese-factory-workers-suicides-humiliation