This message was self-deleted by its author

[Pholus]

82. That's easy. Make students sign a no-suicide pact with financial penalties for their survivors.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382396/Workers-Chinese-Apple-factories-forced-sign-pledges-commit-suicide.html

Hey you. You commit suicide, we will make sure your family will not benefit from your loss past "legal minimums."

What do you suppose the "legal minimum" in damages is under Chinese law? I tried to find out and could only find a single source.

http://www.theconglomerate.org/2008/02/tort-damages-fo.html

Okay. So their minor/unable to work dependents typically get a cost-of-living payment, locally adjusted (no wonder most of these people come from rural areas) until they turn 18. In addition your funeral expenses are paid. There is a payment of 20 years of the average net income for the location where you came from -- not where you died -- again biased against rural areas and much lower than the factory rate.

Two example payments of this sort were given in 2008 as being between $9700 and $23700 with the principal difference being locality of the deceased family (rural vs. urban). I would imagine that foxconn can afford it easily.

Searched around for a while, couldn't establish what the difference is between "typical" and "legal minimum" but I'm betting the deal probably gets substantially worse so that there is a substantial disincentive to take the easy way out. All for our shiny compu-gismos.

Anyway, it's just more of the same "over the barrel" cheap labor tactics, turned towards blunting a PR problem. No wonder the suicide rate is low -- foxconn takes hostages.