Amazing to think about. When I first saw Fastech and the free shipping on everything I had to try it out. Just out of curiosity. So I ordered a .76¢ item. A few weeks later is showed up. I was amazed that they can ship something that cheap, that far and make a profit.
It's not even necessary to make a profit out of the 76 cent item shipped across the world. The very same customer is likely to buy something for $20 next time(or might already have bought if they saw something interesting when shopping for that 76 cent item). That's still cheap and handling these packages will at least cost something to the postal service in the receiving country. But no worries, they will just raise their prices on domestic postage to cover for that.
But the actual cheap price on the product before it ever leaves China is whole another issue. It's of course based on slave work, child work and other exploitation. Foxconn is notorious for employee suicides, but it's just one example. People taking their lives because of evil sweatshop employers is just another day in China. There
is something very wrong ethically with this.
I mean, it's not like I avoid buying directly from China because of this. The item worth 10 cents, that costs 1 dollar incl shipping directly from China, is just as questionable as a product if I buy it for 10 euros from a local dealer. A flagship Apple smartphone worth 100 euros and selling for 600 is not any better. People around the world die to produce this stuff, all the way from tantalum mining(and smuggling!) business to the sweatshop factories. In extreme cases, miners work at gunpoint.
Yes, people do
smuggle(and die trying to smuggle) raw materials for electronics that we take for granted, and there are civil wars fought for this - at least in part because of this. So before judging or even morally questioning drug smugglers, be sure you don't have any consumer electronics.
I don't believe there is really much that I could do about that by buying or not buying something. But the important thing is whether people actually realize there is a problem. On the other hand, the affordable-pay... I mean slave work... countries are developing all the time and the - admittedly exploitative - industry kind of helps that. There is less poverty now than 10 or 20 years ago.
A lot
I assume it's all done by hand.Not the first time I see this stuff. Ordered 6 bracelet clips from China, including shipping I paid $1.75..
Most soldering to PCB's is automated these days. That's why SMD technology was developed and became so popular. Some components still need some sweat shop work.
For example we could look at a simple flashlight driver board like this:
www.dx.com/p/2-7v-4-2v-1400ma-5-mode-led-driver-board-2-pcs-162807
The wires might be hand soldered, but all the surface mounted components are automatically laid in place and soldered.
Really wonder how they earn a living their.
The ones doing the sweat shop work really don't. They just manage. Some won't for very long. The big companies will of course make huge profits both in manufacturing and online retail.
