Chinese Manufacturing: Working Conditions

Too often I find myself taking modern technology for granted. In my lifetime alone I have seen the transition from dial-up internet to fiber-optics and high speed cable internet. While my dad would often tell me stories of huge corporate computers, I, among a majority of Americans, carry a super computer in my hand. With a smartphone I can contact a relative across the globe, within seconds, with only the physical expense of pushing a few buttons. 

   It is beyond me to comprehend the electrical and data engineering that allows this communication. Likewise, I found myself equally ignorant of the manufacturing process that physically enabled me to have a smartphone --a product, in the first place. 

   In class we discussed the controversy behind large Chinese manufacturing companies such as Foxconn. Working conditions there were so atrocious that the company had to install suicide-prevention nets around its campus. These workers were not being treated well.

   I feel guilty that I can so carelessly use a product that was so laboriously assembled. I am upset that such conditions are ignored or otherwise accepted to maintain economical efficiency. I feel helpless to change this situation, and I am afraid that those tired, working hands are gears in a mechanism that, if left unchecked, will continue indefinitely.