From our sweat shop to your door

Like others I am suffering from FedEx anxiety, frequently checking the shipping status of my new MacBook. (Tip: Simple Tracking provides more tracking details than FedEx does)

I should have anticipated, but I was surprised to note that FedEx reported my order shipped (on the first business day) from SUZHOU CN. That's CN, as in China. Naturally. I don't know why I imagined they were assembled in the US.

So as I sit, thinking about all the fossil fuels pouring into the environment because I wanted a computer that is built on the other side of the planet (as I'm sure they all are), I started thinking about what goes on in SUZHOU CN. Probably it's a different plant, but at least one Apple supplier in SUZHOU is allegedly not playing nice. Even buying from manufacturers in China that do "play nice" according to local standards makes me feel a bit dirty (and not in a good way). "According to a China Labor Watch project coordinator, Xiao Min Zheng, the minimum wage... where... the iPod nano factory [is] located, is... about $80 a month." (from the same article)

I wish China would hurry up and get rich so their living standards and wages would increase to a point where we would stop buying from them. Of course, I'm sure we'd just move on to the next "starve the workers and beat them for good measure" sweat shop haven.

But I do love my shiny new electronics.