Rumor: Apple paying Foxconn workers directly

you know, there is actually incentive to commit suicide. apparently the families of suicide victims get compensated many times their salary if they die. So if i were desperate and depressed from low pay and work pressure, i'd probably commit suicide too.

Bite the dust and the whole family wins.

BS, Apple want more profit and they want Foxconn to be as cheap as possible.

That's the way global business works, get real Apple fanboy.

You can't simply compare the $/hr paid in China to that in some other country; you need to evaluate what sort of life it buys you. I don't know what the comparison is like between US & China - let alone knowing any detailed comparisons involving specific cities/areas; there are comparisons on the web and maybe some of them actually mean something. I *do* know that moving from Silicon Valley to rural Vancouver Island roughly halved my cost of living.

Was looking at the iPhone 4g case leak on engadget, and I suddenly can't help but think maybe it's one of these sweat shop workers in China that is intentionally selling the pieces for extra $ because of the poor earning potential in the occupation.

Always with the negative waves, Moriaty...give it a rest already.

Then your Sony laptop, Microsoft xbox, and nintendo wii are probably yellow with dust trapped somewhere too since they also contract with foxconn.

Hmm. I have a 3-yr-old Macbook that isn't the slightest bit yellow, and I have an iPhone 3G without a single speck of dust (that I can see), so I would say they've made at least one of each already!

I wonder how much an iPad, for example, would cost if it were made here. Our country could sure use the work.

Money isn't really the problem, though. Tons of people want to work at FoxConn because they make a TON of money for the region. Not only is the pay good, but FoxConn is one of the Chinese companies that allows workers to work for overtime pay if they desire. So really, it's a tough situation - people are suiciding because of being overworked, but it's their own choice to work that much. I guess if their regular pay was higher there'd be less incentive to work that much overtime, but to keep up the company output the company would have to hire more workers.

Seems odd for apple to pay the workers of a factory that makes components for almost all hardware companies.