OSNews

I remember being in college in the 80's and watching our generation, and others, change Apartheid thru boycotts, and even took on the Chinese sweatshops thru boycotts, bringing on some changes. The global efforts of the consumer brought about changes for the better then. It's sad today that we are so wrapped up in our stuff that we try to simply justify abhorrent behavior by companies and countries.

Working at Foxconn is optional and there is huge demand for positions at Foxconn. Food and housing is free and I found nothing about armed guards at dorms but even if there were, there are armed guards at public schools in the US.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn_suicides

"The suicide rate at Foxconn during the suicide spate remained lower than that of the general Chinese population,[8] and the Foxconn deaths may have been a product of economic conditions external to the company"

Foxconn suicides are lower than the national average even on a bad year (source: http://www.economist.com/node/16231588 ). They typicially have just a few a year but as I pointed out they have 1.2 million employees.

I have personally known a couple people in the US that committed suicide and I don't personally know anywhere close to millions of people. Anyone saying the suicides are proof of poor working conditions are spouting nonsense.

On their worst year they had ~15 suicides. In 2007 and 2008 alone, 255 active duty (American) soldiers committed suicide. That is ~125 suicides a year and there about the amount of employees at Foxconn as there are soldiers on active duty. so:

The suicide rate of active duty American soldiers is over 10 times higher than it is for Foxconn workers.