Hi, my name is MadHound, and I use a (insert electronic device here) made in China. [View all]

[MadHound]

I've watched with amusement as the Apple/Microsoft wars have gone to a new level. Instead of arguing the merits of one platform over another, the various posters are arguing about the merits of where their particular product is made.

Ummm, folks, I hate to break it to you, but any computer you are using now, and virtually any electronic device in your home, from cell phone to stereo to tv was made in China(unless you are like myself and have electronics that are so old they were made in the US). They were all made in sweatshop conditions, using abhorrent practices like prison labor, child labor, and so forth.

In fact, many, if not most products in the typical American household are made in China, under the same sort of working conditions. Which means that the vast majority of us are surrounded by products that represent the blood and tears of workers who are brutalized in order that we can buy goods cheap.

Welcome to the global economy.

So really now, to denigrate one product for being made under these conditions when the opposing product is made under the very same conditions is foolish, to say the least.

What we need to do is to bring market pressure to bear on the corporations who outsource to China, no matter who they are. Boycott them and raise public holy hell until they agree that the factories they control implement quality labor practices, or better yet, until these corporations bring their manufacturing back home.

Now if they do bring that manufacturing back home, the price on the product will rise. After all, it was the cost of labor that drove manufacturing from these shores. So are you willing to pay more for what you buy? I know I am. In fact I think it would be a great thing to bring manufacturing home. Better labor practices, and with increased prices perhaps people won't dispose of their old phones every eighteen months just to get the newest, latest thing. Perhaps they won't toss their computer every three years to get the latest whiz bang. Perhaps, with such goods costing more, we will become less of a disposable society in general.

And then, perhaps, we can put the focus of the Apple/MS wars back on the actual product.