[Arm-netbook] Will EOMA68-A20 be sweatshop-free?

[Paul Boddie]

On Saturday 27. August 2016 18.32.07 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> 
>  there's a story about that - how a chinese factory manager was
> extremely annoyed at the effects the well-meaning idiot journalists
> had - explaining that the factories had to be moved to northern china
> where prices are lower and journalists and gwailo foreigners don't get
> granted visas - because prices being raised by westerners demands for
> "fairer wages" pushed up the price of labour across the *entire*
> guangdong area... and now foxconn and others are going fully-automated
> thus putting people *out* of work.

Certainly, it is often reported that wage demands are making China (as a 
whole) less competitive than other countries, and so the forces of 
globalisation are happy to move factories to those other countries, instead. 
It shouldn't be a surprise that, China being a big place, factories get moved 
around in China to take advantage of economic (and other) conditions.

Nor should it really be a surprise that automation is seen as a more economic 
alternative. That was supposed to be the dream in the West, where everyone 
could then live lives of leisure (or do other work instead) while the machines 
did all the work, but naturally, neither the factory owners nor the state want 
to pass on the benefits to the people they've put out of work. (The UK 
government's idiotic response to people affected by this kind of thing seems 
to have been "move to London" for several decades while actually encouraging 
the disappearance of manufacturing.)

>  she also explained to this idiotic western journalist that the
> standard of living has gone up by 100 to 1,000 times compared to 2-3
> generations ago, where her grandparents for example lived in a corner
> of a field to tend crops, they slept in the shed with the animals to
> keep warm and they literally starved for 3 months during winter
> because there wasn't any food available.
> 
>  by contrast having electricity, walls surrounding the roof that's
> over your head and access to clean water is...

Yes, there are different measures of development: this is also a topic that 
recurs a lot with regard to how China interacts with various African nations. 
Interestingly, in the context of how lifestyles and standards of living 
change, similar things happened during the Industrial Revolution in the West.

Some journalists may just be looking for a sensational story, perhaps with 
ulterior motives, but others - particularly genuine advocates of things like 
better working conditions - are not necessarily operating to shame China or to 
coerce the country in some way. They may merely be pointing to history and be 
attempting to show that some bad things happened in the past - and in their 
very own countries, too! - that could happen again, but could also be avoided.

If publicity causes an increase in wages and better working conditions, that 
is a good thing, but it needs to be accompanied by a commitment by the 
corporate customers of the affected factories to not dump them for cheaper and 
less scrupulous manufacturers. And consumers have to accept that better 
conditions cost more, and that they should not follow their outrage at worker 
exploitation by then only wanting the cheapest possible product.

Had Chinese journalists (or equivalent) visited British factories two-hundred 
years ago, I'm sure the factory managers would have been just as upset. The 
trick is to take advantage of other people's perspectives and knowledge, and 
thus to break the vicious cycle.

[...]

> > But just as Fairphone could have had a productive conversation with Luke,
> > maybe Luke could have a productive conversation with Fairphone. At least
> > then, such other concerns will at least have been openly acknowledged.
> > Maybe he already has spoken to them about their core area of expertise:
>  i have.. they didn't listen... the results we've seen are the
> train-wrecks that are still ongoing.

With regard to manufacturing or materials sourcing? Their traditional core 
areas of expertise, I mean.

From a casual perspective their work seems well-intentioned, but not being 
familiar with either area (and I have particular respect for those working in 
very dangerous or difficult places to investigate such things), I can't say 
whether they make a real difference or not. Their attempts to commit to 
manufacturers and form relationships seem to make sense.

Paul