overseas manufacturing in developing countries

http://behindthewall.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10284158-the-chinese-want-jobs-too

Workers want those jobs
On Monday, tens of thousands of people lined up outside a job agency to apply for an estimated 100,000 new jobs Foxconn is seeking to fill at its factory in Zhengzhou, the capital of central Henan province.
Foxconn wants to double its current workforce of 130,000 at the Zhengzhou plant, which it opened last year. The facility already churns out 200,000 iPhones a day and is part of Foxconn’s grand plan to make Zhengzhou the world’s largest smartphone manufacturing base.
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The basic starting salary advertised--according to a report posted on M.I.C. Gadget, a blogsite about tech and other related matters in China—is 1,650 yuan a month ($261), which includes dorm housing and food.
The pay is lower than comparable salaries Foxconn pays workers at its Shenzhen factory in southern China. But that may be a sacrifice Henan workers are willing to make initially.
With a population in excess of 100 million, Henan is China’s most populous province. A fifth of them are migrant workers who travel widely to find jobs in the country’s more prosperous regions like the south or coast.

$261 a month on top of housing and food is not completely terrible, especially assuming certain things are going to be a lot cheaper there than we're used to. I mean at least that almost guarantees you have extra money to send to your family or save if you want, as opposed to making exactly enough to survive.

I would wager that, taking into account cost of living, that salary is probably equivalent to a 20,000-30,000 a year salary here. but I'm not an economist so I don't know how to directly make those comparisons.

cross-posted from the china thread

http://www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/article/1670/DUMPLINGS!!-for-sale

a good picture of what poor people in china do that doesn't involve making iphones, it's pretty sad

Interesting China fact:

The richest 70 members of China’s legislature added more to their wealth last year than the combined net worth of all 535 members of the U.S. Congress, the president and his Cabinet, and the nine Supreme Court justices...
The wealthiest member of the U.S. Congress is Representative Darrell Issa, the California Republican who had a maximum wealth of $700.9 million in 2010, according to the center. If he were in China’s NPC, he would be ranked 40th. Per capita income in China is about one-sixth the U.S. level when adjusted for differences in purchasing power.

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/02/china-fact-of-the-day-6.html

Meanwhile, domestic warehouse work in the undeveloping united states:

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor

there's a few details that are a bit fucked up but feeling a lot of "yeah, so?" knee-jerk too.

the great convergence

"amalgamated" is a thin disguise for "amazon"

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/01/19/fewer-more-demanding-workers-for-vietnamese-factories/#axzz1juui4rRO

Unlike China, the vast Communist neighbour to which it is often compared, Vietnam does not have large pools of migrant workers desperate for factory jobs, says Pincus:
“In China, there’s still huge a migration to the coast. There are hundreds of millions of potential workers who have few options. In Vietnam, the migration is smaller, the country is smaller and for many people there are other, better options.”

sad lol

http://www.chinalawblog.com/2012/03/the_end_of_cheap_china_part_v_vietnam_burmamyanmar_and_the_next_big_thing-2.html

http://motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/walmart-china-sustainability-shadow-factories-greenwash?page=1

http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-blog/2012-03-20-now-can-we-start-talking-about-the-real-foxconn/

good post but I'm afraid that 'foxconn apologist' may be a hard label to shake

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/03/iphone-factories-chinese-dreams.html

So this Hanjin Shipping collapse is really something. Container vessels full of TVs doomed to circle port forever as their crews starve. Christmas ruined. Etc.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/billions-in-cargo-remains-stranded-at-sea-1473285117

The fact it is all being documented by an artist in residence is a fabulous twist.

Can't read the WSJ article but it's kind of amazing that the first major container line to go bust in thirty years did so at a time of super-low oil prices.

I'm learning a lot of things I should have already known as a result of this toothsome story.

It's surely going to impact my day job as well (though we don't ship anything with Hanjin)

Here's a great piece about the sham of Nike's "Girl Effect" campaign vs the realities for women working in its Vietnam factories.

Chapo Trap House's interview with the author is also great.

a little bit of third world in small town dayton ohio

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/business/economy/ohio-factory-jobs-china.html