It’s all Apple all the time these days: "astounding"
earnings reports in the news on Jan. 25, lingering shots of Steve Jobs’ widow
Laurene sitting near the First Lady and, of course, ever since his death in
October, universal references to Jobs himself in any writing or speech aimed at
promoting creativity or ingenuity or an all-American,
against-all-odds model of success. However,
New York Times articles this week spoke of a darker reality behind the glowing
Apple story: the "millions of human machines," as the Times" Charles Duhigg and
David Barboza put it, in China who are now laboring 12 hours a day, six days a
week to maintain the company’s amazing rate of growth. They
live in dormitories where they can be called to their jobs anytime and often
work double shifts in highly unsafe conditions. They’re willing to do all it
takes. "It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad," Duhigg wrote. "Rather,
Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the
flexibility, diligence and expertise of foreign workers have so outpaced their
American counterparts that ’Made in the U.S.A.’ is no longer a viable option for
most Apple products." The Times stories raised very serious
questions about not only Apple or the many other companies that similarly rely
on overseas labor to support their growth and flood the world with cheap
products, but the human cost of the growth model itself that has allowed Apple
to thrive. It’s a model of growth, all too unquestioned in the U.S., that
demands endless quality-of-life sacrifices in the service of productivity and
profit. By quality of life, I mean good relationships with friends and family
and having the time and the physical and emotional availability to invest in
friends and family. Yet American workers have been headed in
the opposite direction for decades. Working hours have expanded to the point
where successful professionals now consider the traditional 40-hour workweek a
"part-time" job. Vacation time has been shrinking. In the current downturn, the
employed are too scared of losing work to take time off. The pressure to be
superproductive, ever willing, and always available has never been greater. But
we should call into question the direction we’re headed and ask whether chasing
the dream of growth has already turned into a nightmare. It’s up to the rest of
us now to decide what to make of Steve Jobs’ legacy. The author’s attitude to Apple’s story of success is ______.
A. approval
B. objection
C. admiration
D. indifference