SEPTEMBER 20, 2020 VOL.

01

GROWTH?
Karen Rivera´s Monthly Company Newsletter

THE RATIONAL ECONOMIC

Chinas agricultural CHOICE...

reform DEPENDS ON THE

Boosted agricultural productivity, ended INDIVIDUAL
startvation and led to economic growth
DECISION MAKER
Before 12/1978 collectivism took away the incentive to
grow food, there were shortages of food in some parts of AND THE "BEST" USE
the country (no comercial incentive to shift food
supplies to places were people needed something to eat
OF THEIR LIMITED
and farmers didn´t have incentives to work hard or RESOURCES TO
smart becaus ethey didn´t personally earn profit and
could cheat the system. SUPPLY THEIR
INFINITE WANTS AND
The first step was made by individual families who
divided they collective territory into personal properties, NEEDS.
facing risks, then communist china wanted new private
centers and made every region specialize on what they
could produce more effectively and transport it and BY MAKING
trade it across region
SACRIFICES WITH
They focused on the factors of production they mostly
had because of scarcity and made the choice of trading.
DIRECT AND
Communist china had challenges of sustainability and INDIRECT
were starving because they didn´t have incentives to
produce, so they preferred the trade off of not having REPERCUSSIONS
collective properties and therefore the OC of working
easy and "dumb".
 RESUME: VOL. 01

In this article you will learn about

China´s economic growth and Taiwan´s
most important and productive
company: Foxconn. This will permit the
reader to weight and compare two
worldviews and decide wether wether or
not it´s high level production is a threat
to sustainability and if the trade-off is
better than losing millions of jobs. This
is also an invitation to start asking
questions about personal consumption
and the role the society assumes in the
natural flow of income.
PHOTO BY MARTIN R. SMITH

Apple: reinforcing market confidence?

Great demand of Apple technology led to question it´s treatment of employees after Suicide nets called for a negotiation (2010)

Young, numerous chinese employees in the biggest chinese Apple supply Foxconn revealed their work style. They may be
tired, with 12h shifts, crowded dorms and post meal naps. However, with the creation of psychological nets to prevent
suicide, a raise of wages, labor associations, annonymous grievances to New Zealand and an open counselling center, Apple
was able to retaliatte after taking the heat of bad publicity for the entire industry.

BAD PUBLICITY OR HUMAN COST OF

INDUSTRIAL SUCCESS?
As political economist and historian Brian Roper from
The University of Otago puts it: everyone uses Foxconn:
Amazon, Microsoft, Nintendo. Obsolete technology is
needed and to solve this: "further than consumer
boicots the key is international solidarity and support".
Some may call it empathy.
Ironically, everyone may feel horrified by the suicides
and yet they buy technology and push the possible
human cost out of their minds, because nowadays it
depends, like Mike Cormack writer editor and reviewer
puts it: "on the consumers being willing to stop paying
attention to shinny toys in their hands".
Which is not easy because of publicity and social
pressure.
Mass production and consumption is a real life
problem, and it possesess multiple implicarions as The
Chinese Post Magazine confirms
By taking one of the most powerful production
companies labour human costs as an example:
a. 16 Year olds conform 15% of Foxconns workforce,
fortunately they don´t require social security tax
payments to the company. Whilst older workers aren´t
as cheap to employ, as productive or as willing to work
huge amounts of overtime.
b. “Foxconn University” offers study and training
programmes, but workers with just two days off a month
don’t get many chances to attend.
c. The high cost of living in Shenzhen means most
workers don’t see any improvement in their living
standards even if Foxconn pays more than its workers
would earn in their rural villages
Because of the previous statements we must veil for
economic solidarity, because this can happen in Taiwan
just like it can happen anywere at any time.
 ACADEMIC
Citilis. 2012. "[FR/EN]ABC usine
Foxconn Apple - Full HQ -

INTEGRITY: Documentary Nightline ABC iFactory

Apple Foxconn" Taken from youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
References:
time_continue=5&v=7cRBBRwBKlE&fea

Tyler Cowen. 2020. George Mason ture=emb_title Recommended

University. "China’s agricultural reading:
reforms" Taken from:
https://mru.org/courses/developm Radio New Zealand 2020. Brian Roper .

ent- The University of Otago. "The Politics

economics/china%E2%80%99s- and Harsh Realities behind our

Dying for an
agricultural-reforms Technology." Taken from:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/progra
IPhone: Apple,
mmes/nights/audio/2018763156/the- Foxconn, and
politics-and-harsh-realities-behind-our- The Lives of
technology
China's Workers
South China Post Magazine. Mike
Cormack. 2020. "Review | Dying for an Book by Jenny
iPhone: investigating Apple, Foxconn
Chan, Mark
and the brutal exploitation of Chinese
workers" Taken from: Selden, and
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/pos Ngai Pun
t-
magazine/books/article/3082307/dying
-iphone-investigating-apple-foxconn-
and-brutal