Saturday, March 5, 2011

Happiness is not killing yourself

On the cover of Wired, there's a statistic that gave me pause: "1 Million Workers, 90 Million iPhones, 17 suicides. Who's to blame?"

What about making our gadgets is causing these Chinese workers to end their current incarnation?

Should we feel responsible? Should we demand that Apple and other outsourcing companies have higher regard for their employees well-being.

17 suicides is a peculiar number. It's not an insignificant number, but it's not unimaginably large. You can almost imagine each individual and the impact their sudden departure made on their families.

But then I thought, really, for a million workers, 17 seems below average. I found the following statistics.d

  • Highest rates:
    • American Indian and Alaska Natives — 14.3 per 100,000
    • Non-Hispanic Whites — 13.5 per 100,000
  • Lowest rates:
    • Hispanics — 6.0 per 100,000
    • Non-Hispanic Blacks — 5.1 per 100,000
    • Asian and Pacific Islanders — 6.2 per 100,000

First, it's interesting that non-hispanic whites are almost as prone to suicide as American Indian. Second, the lowest suicide rate is non-hispanic blacks, which, if mathemagically converted, is 51 suicides per million.

So, while the working conditions still may not be ideal, this should sound more of a domestic alarm about the suicide rate.