How long would it take for a Foxxcon worker to buy an iPad? | Hacker News Reader

How long would it take for a Foxxcon worker to buy an iPad?

robs.im

14 pointsRobSim21 comments

I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is?

Is it to show how expensive the iPad is, or to show how little Chinese workers earn on average?

When I was younger and less experienced as a developer, I worked as the groundskeeper for some posh apartments that I would never be able to afford. Is this the same thing?

Workers working at an assembly line factory don't make much money. I don't think that's news to anyone.

Thank you very much for the feedback, I've updated my post with a little section on what this means.

Not really sure about what is unfair about it. An iPad and iPhone is a luxury item.

It's actually startlingly easy for a worker in China to be able to afford something as amazing as a tablet computer.

There are certainly concerns about the factory "cities" that the workers have to live in and spend 95% of their annual income on.

I'm all for higher wages for Chinese workers, but what does the final price of a manufactured good have to do with the manufacturing wage? If they happened to be applying their skills to something with a lower final price, like remote controls, wouldn't it be fallacious to assume that to be more just?

What exactly is the point ?

How long it would take for the guy who washes the dishes in my favourite restaurant to buy the shoes I'm wearing? How long would it take a techie in a hedge fund to buy a yacht? How long would it take the sales guy a Cartier store to buy that 75kUSD watch?

More importantly, what would knowing this tell us about anything?

Another important question to remember: How long would it take him to buy an iPad if he wasn't a Foxxcon worker?

I'm not sure of the point.

How long would a Ferrari worker take to buy a Ferrari?

How long would it take a construction worker to buy the house they're building (in cash)?

And the list goes on...

I apologize in advance for being off-topic, but the quality of comments on this post is really disappointing.

This article has only gotten 8 upvotes so far, but nearly as many complaining comments with pointless analogies about building sports cars or airplanes.

If you're going to complain about an article being pointless, you could post some useful fact or insights, instead of comments that are entirely devoid of any information.

I don't take this as the author making a protest about the Chinese workers being exploited (and I'm not getting into an argument about any potential exploitation.) If anything this article is just the author highlighting the living and working wage disparity between the east and west.

Honestly, I just took this article as a guy doing some maths about an interesting situation without any judgement about it.

How long would it take a Boeing worker to buy a Boeing 777 Freighter?

The 2013 Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed carries a $209,600 base price (with options can go to $245,440)[1]. How long would it take for a Bentley factory worker to buy one of those?

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley

Having been one of those factory workers -- it was not really something I lost sleep over.

I did get a laugh out of the thought, though.

What about a construction worker working on a house? A McMansion? A skyscraper?

Ok, there's lots of backlash to this on here but I think the focus is a little wrong.

No, it doesn't make sense to use the cost of the manufactured item as a benchmark - it's not completely relevant as has already been pointed out.

You could look at it a different way. We are in a very privileged position - I'd bet almost everybody here could walk out and buy an ipad right now if they wanted to. The people in these factories are not so lucky.

The numbers just give a little perspective to reality of what's going on.

Thank you very much for the positive feedback. I thought I'd just present the numbers and let people interpret them, but I guess I should've been more concise.

Not particularly informative. I worked on an assembly line for four months during the aftermath of the DotCom collapse building Mercedes M-Class SUV's. I've never ridden in a Mercedes much less driven one.

Of course I could if it was a life goal but I still wouldn't waste my money on something like that.

I know that there are machines that automatically solders all the chips and electronics on a board which I think is the hardest part, why isn't the whole electronics manufacturing process automated yet? Whatever the reason I don't think it will last long and then I wonder where all these workers will work then.

It's a tricky issue. They are being exploited, sure, but without foxconn jobs, where would they work?

How many iPads could a (foxconn) worker have bought before China became a technology manufacturing hub is the real question?

Hell of a lot less I'd image. A lot less medicine and school for their kids as well I'll guess.

I don't know, how long would it take a US factory worker to buy one? How long would it take for a Apple employee in Cupertino?

Yes, let's shut down the factory. Then it would take infinitely long.

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