Chris talks with Mike Daisey, monologist and performer of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" about Apple's manufacturing practices in China, the decline of U.S. manufacturing jobs, and whether Apple is a story of American recovery of American failure.
-Brett Brownell (@brettbrownell) is video and web producer for Up w/ Chris Hayes which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings on MSNBC.
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Over the past decade, Americans watched in bafflement and rage as one institution after another – from Wall Street to Congress, the Catholic Church to corporate America, even Major League Baseball – imploded under the weight of corruption and incompetence. In the wake of the Fail Decade, Americans have historically low levels of trust in their institutions; the social contract between ordinary citizens and elites lies in tatters.
How did we get here? With "Twilight of the Elites," Christopher Hayes offers a radically novel answer. Since the 1960s, as the meritocracy elevated a more diverse group of men and women into power, they learned to embrace the accelerating inequality that had placed them near the very top. Their ascension heightened social distance and spawned a new American elite--one more prone to failure and corruption than any that came before it.
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Mike's piece, the Times' article, and your segment would have been more powerful and more to the point if you'd included facts, figures and stories about OTHER manufacturers of US electronics - as a matter of fact, electronics from around the world.
In short, this isn't an APPLE problem, it is an issue with labor standards in China and how does the world change that to make them better. Which would make it less of a differential between US and Chinese jobs, which would make it easier for companies to keep jobs here - or bring them back.
China, as you noted briefly, is a Communist country, and is controlled by the Communist Party, which allows no other parties, either political or labor, to exist. If conditions there are primitive and allow for low wages, it isn't a mistake, but a result of a synergy between their culture, its history, and the desires of that party to keep manufacturing jobs in China.
In short, in spite of Apple's economic power, because of the overall economic situation in China, there will be limits to what one company can do. To change the situation in China will take a concentrated effort on the part of the entire world to put pressure on that government to make fundamental, bedrock changes to how that government operates, which is at the foundation of why this is a problem in China. It won't be easy, as several decades of world pressure on China has done very little against China's human rights record. As you also noted, there are lots of good laws on the books in China guaranteeing all sorts of rights and such - but the culture there allows for very little subjection of the Party to the letter of the law. The law, in China, is a tool the Party uses against its enemies, and not a protection for its citizens.
Your segment, Mike's show and the Times' article failed miserably in bringing this point to the fore and even mentioning it.
Pressure on one company will not change conditions in China, but will only bring damage and unfounded blame on that one company. I am sure that all of the other PC manufacturers (and smartphone manufacturers, too) are smiling and saying, "Thanks for all the negative publicity against our main competitor!"
As an update, here is a letter from BSR to the NYT regarding the misleading things published in that article:
You should read the letter in full, provided in a link to a pdf of the letter!
I know I copied that link in that post:
If the agenda to hollow out USA's Middle Class persists and not only gains momentum but becomes the status quo in the 21rst century. Perhaps manufacturing these products will come back to this country since the owners will again enjoy huge profit gains for themselves by exploiting labor here the way they exploit it abroad. And since Jobs will be scarce it wont be hard to get people to take underpaid oppressive employment (as China is doing) here since no one wants to go hungry. Stop worrying about Democracy in China and start wondering where it is heading here!
Your discussion of Chinese labor practices stirred some strong feelings in me. I would like to see those working conditions improved and I certainly don't want to buy products that were produced under those awful conditions. I like the idea that Apple could use some of its wealth to create a new supply chain, and it seems appropriate since most Apple users are very socially conscious. I don't think Apple has a responsibility to fix this but I do think they are in a position to help fix it. My enthusiasm for Apple would increase enormously if they could help create a supply chain without the misery.