EchoLocation said:
Drizzt321 said:
GDub said:
[quote author=Drizzt321]
That, and they can also harness the power of mass production to make much of the AF system for both 5d3 & 1DX cheaper on a per unit cost since they share large parts....
AKA, farm it out to slave labor in China. Brilliant! High end gear at "low" prices for those of us who don't care how we get our discounts.
That's what pretty much everyone else does in the electronics (or most other manufacturing) industry. Not saying I personally agree with the policy, at least in so much as the working conditions and pay are, from what I understand, mostly pretty horrible, unsafe, and they are paid almost nothing. Not saying it has to be up to US standards of pay (depending on local costs of living & such), but they really should be safe and have some decent pay.
I live in China, and I'm American. My wife owns a small factory and she sells products to several larger factories, so I have access to several large factories(usually Chinese motorcycle and other engine making factories, nothing anyone in the US has heard of.)
These factories are very very nice and as safe as most any factory around the world(with a little less worry than the US about insurance, etc.)
Pay is not almost nothing, it's actually pretty decent at most large factories.
I have not been to Foxconn, or anything like that... but from the factories I have seen personally, which are not huge international brands(and IMO more likely to be below US standards than Nikon, Canon, Apple factories,) the people are treated very well and have fine working conditions. The pay is average or above average overall for China.
Most people are paid around 200-400 dollars a month. Yes, 400 dollars a month is not much for America... But outside of camera gear, electronics, and fancy foreign food and alcohol, I easily live on 400 dollars a month in China.... And I order tortilla chips online and go out to fancy western bars. I can take my wife to an awesome dinner that is huge(we cant finish it) for 4 dollars. A coca cola is 40 cents here. My phone bill is 6 dollars a month for unlimited minutes and texting. The people who are paid 200 dollars are usually very old and work because they have worked their whole lives and have nothing else to do. There are a couple 75 year old men at my wife's factory that are paid about 200 dollars a month(much less than others.) They were given apt's long ago by the state, and the factory provides meals, pays utilities, etc. These people often don't need to work, and they really don't do much at the factory. They simply help when they can, do paperwork, clean. Many old people here feel that if they quit working, they will die. Often old people who live with their now rich children will go out in the day and collect recycling from garbage cans. Not because they NEED money, but because they want to be active and they feel that people are just throwing away money(recycling is $ to them.) It is part of their culture and they don't want to do nothing.
I am sure that there are factories that are below standards, pay less, are unsafe and do illegal things. But this is not the majority and I can guarantee that it is not the case at Nikon or Canon factories in China....
Me and my wife often talk about Foxconn and are confused about what is going on there, and why they are having such problems. The large motorcycle factories I have seen are exactly the same as large factories I have seen in the US(I used to work in a large mfg facility in Seattle for 2 years.)
Additionally, because of the rise in the middle class, there is a huge shortage of low cost labor here in China so factories are rapidly increasing their pay to attract more workers.
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China is a huge country with a massive population. And while I believe that what you're saying about your experience with local factories where you live China is true, I also think you are whitewashing (inadvertently perhaps) what is a VERY large problem with the Chinese manufacturing system as a whole.
It doesn't take much time to do a Google search and cull a whole lot of information about labor conditions in China. The NYTimes blog posting below is a fairly "lightweight" exposé compared to other articles/reports I've read.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/q-and-a-with-li-qiang-of-china-labor-watch/
BTW, I have a friend who lives and owns a bar in Shanghai, and generally loves living there.