Xu Yi Huang

Ethical Issues in the Social Science:
Manufacturing Electronic in China

HUMANITIES 345-BMB-LA

Bethany Or

Monday,29 november 2012

1697 words

Global trade is what keeps the economy running. Expanding manufactured exports is a key to all nations’ global economy to reduce trade deficits. Two decades ago, China’s reform improved drastically and has now become the world's largest manufacturing powerhouse. Seeing that China is a large and resourceful country, more and more enterprises are continuing to expand their factories because of the low production costs. It is for this reason that China has become the world’s largest electronic manufacturing country today. However, the moral and ethical issues that society faces and has to consider, is whether or not it is morally correct to transfer electronic factories to China consequently causing a negative impacts on the environment. Also, Chinese workers are exploited and experience dreadful working condition. As well as the quality and price of electronic items from China are cheaper. Therefore, it is not morally permissible to manufacture all the electronics in China in order to maximise profits. The cost of production is important when companies want to gain the upmost profits. Manufacturing electronics in China is often less expensive than manufacturing them in the United States or other countries because of the low factory costs. (DiLascio & Tracey M 1). In order to maximise profits, the electronic industries set their factories in China where labour laws are lacking. Consequently, the working conditions of the electronic industry in China continue to be terrible. The CBC news website featured an article from the Canadian Press that Samsung was accused by labour rights of mistreating Chinese workers and illegally using child labour in China. The article demonstrates to the readers how the employees work for almost no pay that they have no choice to work overtime in order to support their family. The employees exceed 100 hours a month with only one day off, indicated by the Canadian Press. According to Zoltan and Barton article, Chinese safety standards and environmental conditions are very different from those in the US (2). From an ethnical view, companies should respect the principal of equal treatment; they should treat their employees in the same way from the US. In addition, the CBC news report indicates that suppliers of Samsung recruited children under 16 years old to work for them, with the knowledge that it is illegal to do so according to the labor rights in China. Based on this fact, it creates disutility because it does not respect the conditions of Chinese workers. Despite the dreadful working conditions, laborers are taken advantage of, thus providing the consumers with the ultimate savings. Another example as how low production costs are is how consumers are paying mostly for the transportation cost. The reason as to why is simply because China uses child labor; mistreating Chinese workers by paying low wages. According to Rachels in “Ethical egoism”, it is selfish to benefit from the cheap goods while the factory of these goods didn’t respect the principal of equal treatment to their workers (67). Companies are egocentric as they are only interested in earning maximum profits over the working condition of their employees. Therefore, it is shown how selfish electronic industry can be when it comes to their welfare. With over one billion people, China is by far the most populous country in the world. Also, China has put the rapid development to influence the global economy by adding more industries in China. As the manufacture and the export sectors grow in China, foreign electronics companies decide to reduce their cost by moving to China. As the results China will face critical and dramatic changes in its local environmental conditions. This is