The Chinese conscript students into internship at their electronics factories? Not nice. Not Apple's fault.
How come this blistering expose of Chinese labor practices didn't blame Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel, I.B.M., Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Netgear, Nintendo, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony or Vizio? It's so attention-grabbing to blame Apple, even though, as far as I know, Apple is the only one among these companies to have even expressed concern about these issues.
Here's the real problem: The Chinese government is determined to dominate electronics manufacture and, as the article illustrates, is willing to go to what we would consider outlandish lengths to succeed. Don't fool yourself that low labor costs is the only reason companies source from China. Chinese companies, Foxconn included, are second to none in electronics expertise and manufacturing quality. That's why virtually every well-known brand is built there. Fix that and maybe consumers would pay a little more for more expensive labor. Maybe not. Don't fix that and there's really no question: no consumer will pay more for crappy products.
