Obama’s answer was equally, if not more out of touch with reality, “[T]here are some jobs that are not going to come back because they are low wage, low skill jobs.”
Making iPhones is a low wage, low skill job? So much for the soundness of the rest of Obama’s rhetoric, “That’s why we have to emphasize manufacturing. That’s why we have to invest in advanced manufacturing. That’s why we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got the best science and research in the world.”
The Real Problem
It would be an insult to the intelligence of both candidates and their teams to suggest that they do not know the real problem, for quite a few of China’s top scholars have openly attributed the low price of China’s products to the “advantages of low human rights.”
According to these scholars, the advantages include more than the Chinese government’s suppressed labor costs; they also include: unsafe working conditions, no or low benefits, no or low retirement security, no environmental protection, no personal life, and no thought for their well-being. For example, an increase in the number of suicides at Foxconn did not result in any changes other than placing netting below any building opening where workers could jump to their deaths.
It is important to note that for Chinese workers, Foxconn is as good as it gets. Foxconn’s factories are the very best that one will find in China, with lovely gyms, pools, and other amenities.
The problem is, nobody has any time to use them because the workers work 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. When 16- to 25-year-old people are put in a situation with no socialization and no dating and with no spiritual guidance, they will be depressed and kill themselves.
These scholars also pointed out that the “advantages of low human rights” are harmful to China as well as to its trade partners. It is not strange that their calls for policy changes have been ignored and that they themselves have been marginalized by the Chinese regime.
