The Price Paid - Part Two

We are relying more and more on technology in more and more aspects of our lives.  For business, social and entertainment we are quick to reach for the latest gadget.  But the workforces that are employed to produce those gadgets do not even earn enough to buy one of the products they spend 60 hours a week assembling.  In a video on Live Leak a young woman is handed an I-Pad that she should be intimately familiar with, after all she spends 60 hours every week contributing to making the devices.  She smiles as she handles the device, there is almost an element of pride in the workmanship of the sophisticated device.

Logo: Ross Justin00
Wikimedia Commons

This faceless workforce goes largely unconsidered  by those in the West that actively and almost religiously consume the latest and smartest technology.  This video gives a very human face to the workers.  With her identity concealed she speaks freely about how hard the worker's are pushed physically, the long hours and the volume of work that they are expected to complete during their shift.   

The culture is one of obedience and surveillance and workers are instructed to never talk to the media.  The young woman compared her life to that of an animal, only having enough time and energy to work, eat and sleep.  The major players are very quick to issue media releases to say they have INVESTIGATED issues and that they value every single one of their employees.  But this one employee stated clearly that she did not feel valued or looked after.  She also had no voice with which to make herself heard.  In the West this workforce is voiceless and faceless as mainstream news outlets never investigate or research the stories of those that fill our consumer markets with new technological gadgets and devices for us to desire and consume.

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