May 28, 2010 at 05:19Foxconn Tenth Suicide Proves Company Success
Yesterday, Taiwan’s Foxconn plant experienced the tenth suicide this year. Since January this year, the factory has had 13 suicide attempts among young workers, including 10 successful ones.
The media say the “suicide crisis” spoils Foxconn’s image and casts a shadow over Apple, which collects the iPhone and iPad here. Like, working 12 hours a day for $ 150 a month is very difficult and people can’t stand it.
However, as with France Telecom last year , simple statistics say the opposite. Just look at the Taiwanese Foxconn factory, which is the world's largest computer component factory, employs 330,000 people.
The average suicide rate among the Chinese is 14 per 100,000 people per year. Although people aged 65+ settle accounts much more often than young people, one can therefore estimate the normal suicide rate among young people at about 10 per 100,000 people per year. Thus, over the past 147 days since the beginning of the year, there should have happened (330,000 / 100,000) * 10 * 147/365 = 13.3 deaths. But in reality, only 10 happened, which is significantly lower than average.
In other words, working at the Foxconn factory de facto reduces people's suicidal tendency. For a rationally minded person, each new case of suicide, firstly, confirms Foxconn's good statistics compared to the surrounding reality, and secondly, serves as a reminder of how many employees work there. Both are proof of Foxconn’s success, and the headlines in Blood on Your iPhone can be considered a violation of journalistic ethics or simply evidence of the underdevelopment of rational thinking in many people.
Interestingly, in both Taiwan and France, some suicides made it clear that they blamed their own company for their death. For example, yesterday’s victims chose a time specifically before a major Foxconn press conference. There is nothing surprising here either. People with depressive tendencies are always looking for a “rational” reason for explaining their psychological anomaly. It is possible that they were prompted to accuse their company by the wide media coverage of the “suicide crisis”.
The media say the “suicide crisis” spoils Foxconn’s image and casts a shadow over Apple, which collects the iPhone and iPad here. Like, working 12 hours a day for $ 150 a month is very difficult and people can’t stand it.
However, as with France Telecom last year , simple statistics say the opposite. Just look at the Taiwanese Foxconn factory, which is the world's largest computer component factory, employs 330,000 people.
The average suicide rate among the Chinese is 14 per 100,000 people per year. Although people aged 65+ settle accounts much more often than young people, one can therefore estimate the normal suicide rate among young people at about 10 per 100,000 people per year. Thus, over the past 147 days since the beginning of the year, there should have happened (330,000 / 100,000) * 10 * 147/365 = 13.3 deaths. But in reality, only 10 happened, which is significantly lower than average.
In other words, working at the Foxconn factory de facto reduces people's suicidal tendency. For a rationally minded person, each new case of suicide, firstly, confirms Foxconn's good statistics compared to the surrounding reality, and secondly, serves as a reminder of how many employees work there. Both are proof of Foxconn’s success, and the headlines in Blood on Your iPhone can be considered a violation of journalistic ethics or simply evidence of the underdevelopment of rational thinking in many people.
Interestingly, in both Taiwan and France, some suicides made it clear that they blamed their own company for their death. For example, yesterday’s victims chose a time specifically before a major Foxconn press conference. There is nothing surprising here either. People with depressive tendencies are always looking for a “rational” reason for explaining their psychological anomaly. It is possible that they were prompted to accuse their company by the wide media coverage of the “suicide crisis”.