[url=http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3796/the_dark_side_of_the_toyota_prius/]The Dark Side of the Toyota Prius -- In These Times[/url]
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[url=http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3796/the_dark_side_of_the_toyota_prius/]The Dark Side of the Toyota Prius -- In These Times[/url]
Discuss.
sounds reliable...:rolleyes:
Ah! Anything to fill America's desire for cheap, trendy crap. If it wasn't for my fear of the metric system and my love of American Football I'd probably move to Germany. Or Italy. The one that doesn't have speed limits.
I don't know how accurate that is and / or if it is pretty common over there (say Honda, Nissan, etc. do the same)... but damn, sounds awful.
I don't get how they're paid less than half the legal minimum wage, but also paid 60% of what a full time employee gets.
[quote=NicFromLA;910737]Ah! Anything to fill America's desire for cheap, trendy crap. If it wasn't for my fear of the metric system and my love of American Football I'd probably move to Germany. Or Italy. The one that doesn't have speed limits.[/quote]
Italy, then.
so they use slaves, and the UAW never does actual work, all evens out in the end
Sounds like they really deserve their spot as #1 automaker...
Basically Toyota can't be seen to be making a loss, it seems.
If this is verifyable this is a horrible situation, but it fits with the Corporate culture they cultivate amongst their staff.
Japanese working themselves to death is nothing new....culturally the term "work" has different meaning.....
Slaves, I can't see it in Japan, but thinking of Prius' supply chain which include battery plant in China, sub-optimum labor condition there will not be surprising at all....that's not taking into account of many other things thats wrong with Prius as a sustainable product(well engineered in itself, but life-cycle wise its flawed).
Even if they used slave though, that has never stopped our trendy celeb and sports stars from endorsing brands like Nike or something, who is famous for child labor and under wage workers...
I honestly am not surprised as a lot of places use such a system. A large proportion of building construction labor in the Middle East uses this system.
The people have no passport, so they cannot leave the chosen/endorsed places of living the company wants, and if they do (or generally piss the company off) the company can turn them in as an illegal immigrant most of the time.
The only thing to be said "for" such a system is that while it does suck, every case I have heard about the actual lives of the workers, despite the low wages they still were able to afford paying for the company's subsidized housing and food, and send some money back home to their family too. Which I guess is better than nothing....
[quote=RacingManiac;910789]Slaves, I can't see it in Japan, but thinking of Prius' supply chain which include battery plant in China, sub-optimum labor condition there will not be surprising at all....that's not taking into account of many other things thats wrong with Prius as a sustainable product(well engineered in itself, but life-cycle wise its flawed).[/quote]
First gen cars are still running on their own batteries.
They surely will need to be changed one day or the other, but they already exceeded expectations.
How ironic the 'ethnical' Prius is made using dodgy labour. Whats even more ironic is the amount of CO2 generated from the research, development and construction of the Prius. Soon enough the windscreen washer bottle will come filled with childs tears as standard!
[quote=TheScrutineer;910801]How ironic the 'ethnical' Prius is made using dodgy labour. Whats even more ironic is the amount of CO2 generated from the research, development and construction of the Prius. Soon enough the windscreen washer bottle will come filled with childs tears as standard![/quote]
they are also responsible for the expansion of mining, and depletion of, a large number of fairly rare heavy metals.
[quote=LeonOfTheDead;910799]First gen cars are still running on their own batteries.
They surely will need to be changed one day or the other, but they already exceeded expectations.[/quote]
Not talking about battery life, more to the point of the whole production to end of life emission of a Prius. What with its Canadian(Sudbury, Ontario) mined Nickel-based Batteries, shipped to China for battery manufacturing, then shipped to Japan for battery pack production and then into the vehicle, then ship the vehicle back to N. America(as an example) for sales...