I certainly didn’t plan to revisit China so soon, but an email from Meredith prompted me to listen to the following: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory
Truth be told, I didn’t need much prompting. I have the This American Life App. It has links to all 400+ shows, and I have started with number 1 and am now up to number 92 which is only Feb. 1998. Obviously, my plan is to listen to all 400+ hours, but I’ve made a dent in this goal already. Did you suspect that I REALLY LIKE this show??
Anyhow, number 454 is an excerpt from a one-man-show done by a fellow named Mike Daisey called “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”. This episode uses Apple as the vehicle, but exposes a much bigger question of global economics, basic human values, corporate regulation, unintended consequences and more.
I’d love to discuss different aspects of this show with you, my family and friends, but rather than describe the show through my set of filters, I’d like you to listen to it first, if you can carve out 56 minutes and then post some comments here.
I’m glad you found it to be worth a listen, Dad. I found it fascinating, guilt-inducing, illuminating. I could have used a segment on “Here’s what you, Ordinary American Consumer, can do to make a difference,” but was awfully grateful that Ira Glass at least explored what IS being done to help exploited workers, and reported on the fact that they are standing up for their rights, little by little, one person at a time. I will never see the “Made in China” tag the same way again.
The show for me, while targeting the high tech industry, brought up the larger question of the cheaper goods we insist on. We even have apps that crawl the Internet to compare prices and force competition to lower prices. We shop at Sams, Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, on and on, squeezing out the smaller vendor. We have lots of stuff and we marvel at the low prices we paid, but seldom if ever stop to ponder the human costs that MUST be added to the final price tag.
We bad mouth the people who couldn’t afford the houses and the lenders who set them up before the sub-prime debacle, but are we really any different in loading up on bargains which bring about collapse?
Ira Glass and some of the ‘guests’ did start to explore the negative effect of ‘knee jerk’ reactions to the problem, and to their credit they did mention all the work Apple has done to try and apply systemic redress, but I’m with you, I’d like a list of things WE could start to do to help.