[DanBC]

Suicide rates at Foxconn are about what you'd expect for a place with that population; the rate is less than the US. (Although that's not saying much.)

There's some caution needed though. Most workers are female which is traditionally higher for attempted but lower for completed suicide, and they don't have as many readily accessible means. (EG, American young men have access to guns.)

The reporters say they spoke to people, freely, and Foxconn didn't know who they spoke to. The reporters seem remarkably ignorant about the fears people have about speaking out when living in an oppressive regime. (China probably executes more people than any other country; there are over 50 crimes that carry the death penalty; some criminals are interviewed for tv programmes before they are executed).

There are a lot of problems at Chinese factories. The fact that poor peasants consider factory work to be better than their regular life just shows how bad life in China is for poor people.

[Sumaso]

My history might be a bit shaky, but people moving into cities to work in factories sounds quite similar to Britain during their industrial revolution. Though they had a whole other set of problems (mainly dealing with sanitation AFAIK).

China still has growing pains that it needs to work through.

[DanBC]

Yes. Poor people migrate to where they think the work is. They're often exploited. Sometimes they're exploited by criminal gangs. Sometimes, if they're lucky, they'll get a low-paid job with excessive hours and poor conditions.

(http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/the-ieconomy-ho...)

Note that Apple is demanding that Foxconn complies with Apple's policy for overtime - that workers earning about $18 per day must not work more than 60 hours a week. Unless it's an emergency. Or an unusual situation.

It's unfortunate that the concentration is almost entirely on Foxconn, because there are worse factories in China.