DIYbanter - OT Apple, America and Squeezed middle class

"Ignoramus1414" wrote in message
...
Great article
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/bu...s.html?_r=1&hp

"
An eight-hour drive from that glass factory is a complex, known informally
as Foxconn City, where the iPhone is assembled. To Apple executives, Foxconn
City was further evidence that China could deliver workers - and diligence -
that outpaced their American counterparts.

That's because nothing like Foxconn City exists in the United States.

The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often
spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn's work
force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day.
When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in
a river of employees streaming past. "The scale is unimaginable," he said. "