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In the past couple of months, the world has given Apple's employment and manufacturing practices a much-needed proctology exam.
This exercise has been beneficial for all involved:
Apple, for example, has now taken a closer look at its supply-chain and manufacturing operations and committed itself to providing more oversight of its partners.
Apple's customers have now had to come to terms (or not) with the fact that their beloved Apple products are made, in part, by teenagers earning a dollar or two an hour, and
Americans in general have had to face the reality that Apple and other electronics manufacturers are smart to make their products in China because:
-- Chinese workers are willing to work harder, longer, and for much less than American workers
-- The whole electronics manufacturing ecosystem has moved to Asia because the United States did not do enough to keep it here, and this ecosystem is critical to companies that want to be as nimble as Apple ("Steve Jobs Freaked Out A Month Before The First iPhone Was Released And Demanded A New Screen")
-- It is now much easier to do business in China and other countries where regulatory and environmental hurdles do not bury any big project in years- and jillions of dollars worth of red tape.
And, as Apple itself pointed out in one of the New York Times stories that helped thrust this issue into the limelight, Apple is a global company that sells products in hundreds of countries.
Apple has no duty, moral or legal, to build its products here. And it's not Apple's job to fix America's problems.
