Thank You, Millions Of Anonymous Chinese Workers Making $2 An Hour, We Love Our iPhone 5s!
It also is accompanied by the following picture:
Many of these workers (and/or their parents) moved from the country-side to take these jobs. Their alternative would be to work jobs like these in the picture below for less (much less) than $2.00 per hour.
Opportunity Cost illustrated...Which worker is the most "exploited" by the economy?
Note: If you think this is a gross exaggeration, you must to read up on recent Chinese economic history. You need to shed your "rich country" perspective and consider the economic ladder has rungs, not an elevator.
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Good post.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, although we may be horrified at how little this job pays by our standards in the U.S., we should realize that, for someone without a college degree, this is considered a well-paying job in China. For example, in Shenzhen, where one of Apple's largest suppliers has a major plant, the minimum wage is 1,320 yuan a month, or $208.32. Using the $2.00 an hour example in this post, an average worker would be making $344.84 a month, or approximately 2,182 yuan. To bring the $2.00 an hour wage to even more of a perspective, a college graduate working in clinical medicine would make about 2,339 yuan a month, or $369.65 - a difference of only about $25.00.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I plan on using this in a classroom discussion. Is there a chart that shows the actual cost of the IPhone vs. what Apple charges for it? Better yet, what would the IPhone cost if it were made here? Awesome reply by Calvin.
ReplyDeleteJoe---I just posted a new blog entry with much of the infor you asked for http://haywardeconblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/nice-graphic-showing-component-costs-of.html
ReplyDeleteAs for how much it would cost to make in the US, I am not sure to be honest. I think I have seen estimates but I would have to look that up.
Apple APPARENTLY has suggested it might move some production to the US BUT my guess is that an Apple facility in the US would not look like one in China. It would look more like an auto manufacturing plant---LOTS of robotics and few(er) workers. It is the microecon concept of the Marginal Rate of Substitution of Labor vs Capital at play. Low skilled labor in the US may become extinct or at the minumun, rare.
I should add---"Well-paid" low skilled labor or better than average paid low skilled labor is at risk, for the most part...
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