Who is Building Your Computer

The Agony and the Ecstasy if Steve Jobs is a monologue play both written and acted by Mike Daisey. Playing to huge success on Broadway in the last month Daisey has been making the media rounds appearing on shows ranging from CBS Sunday Morning to The Jon Stewart Show.

I have seen nothing but clips of the show but in watching the interviews with Mr. Daisey one thing is certain. He does not want Americans to sleep well at night. What he relentlessly point out is that not just Apple products but almost all of our technological marvels are made in conditions which we would find objectionable. This should be no surprise. Steve Jobs was about Steve Jobs and about profit. This does not make him worse than other manufacturers but when you are the biggest you have the biggest spotlight.

A company called FoxComm in China makes a great deal of the electronics we enjoy, the iphone being just one of them. These machines are made by hand. Shifts are ten, twelve, fourteen hours or longer. Pay is poor. Workers stay in dormitories on site. When an epidemic of suicides started occurring among the young workers the company took serious action to prevent them. They made workers sign a pledge not to commit suicide and in case that does not work they put up nets around the buildings to catch those who attempt to jump. I am not making light of the sadness these people feel. I am saying that we as a country cannot have free trade and then act shocked when countries import cheaper products that are made by employees that are not treated well.

Electronics are not the only industry to be put under the spotlight. Automakers send jobs to Mexico to build cars, they import parts from Eastern Europe and of course Japan floods the market with cars built cheaper than America can. Why do they do this? To save money.

Would you pay 500 for your iphone with a two year contract? Would you pay 1000 dollars for your 42 inch television ? I have and will continue to make this argument. Free trade makes a few things you buy cheaper. It lowers the standard of living in this country however. If we had to make our televisions and cars and washing machines in the this country they would cost more. We would, however, all have more money as well as American would see their wages increase. Did the unions get out of hand with benefits and pay. Yes they did.

Still just like when owners of sports teams claim they cannot make money GM and Ford set up these contracts. If someone offered you $25 dollars an hour would you turn it down.

The list is long of who to blame. Reagan's firing the PATCO strikers was the biggest moment in the destruction of organized labor. NAFTA was a disaster. Republicans and Democrats alike are to blame. Corporations are to blame. And we are to blame. We as consumers, myself included, make choices.

Let's not pretend that we are surprised that workers are abused in China. This cannot surprise anyone. Years ago Kathy Lee Gifford was criticized because her clothes were made in sweat shops. Again, really? Of course they were. Virtually any product that is made in another country and imported here is possibly made by workers in substandard conditions. To pretend we do not know this and that we care is hypocritical.

Until we realize free trade benefits multinational corporations but not the regular citizens of this country. Until we stop denigrating unions and realize that people working together are the only hope of curtailing the profits and growth of corporate greed.

Apple is greedy. Corporations are for profit. It is almost impossible for a for profit corporation with stockholders to not cut corners on ethical matters to increase profits. Apple is greedy.

Let's not act surprised.