Abram Sauer Online

Oh, did my headline grab your attention? I bet it did. Just as BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow’s recent post headline “Cheap Chinese appliance imports drive British burglars to switch to iPod muggings” was a reprehensible (maybe unconsciously racist) grab for attention.

The post links to a Science Daily story titled “Burglars Have Changed Their ‘Shopping List’, New Research Reveals” which claims that “the incredible rise of the new superpower has made burglars ‘redundant’ due to the decline in cost of household goods traditionally targeted by thieves.” Basically, since tech junk made overseas is so cheap at Wal-Mart it’s not worth break-and-entering to steal; so instead criminals are jacking people on the street for their iPods. Great premise.

But Doctorow only quotes the bit on China being responsible which, in fact, additionally reveals the misconceptions of the researcher himself. Are many cheap electronics made in China? Yes. Are many other cheap electronics made elsewhere? Yes.

I emailed Doctorow to ask him to explain his reasoning for wording of the post. Big surprise, he did not respond.

Of course, the irony is that iPods are largely made in China with “cheap labor,” a fact that has been widely covered and something one would expect Doctorow to know.

Lazy all around. And it only spotlights a growing problem with focusing on China as the root of  manufacturing problems.

ALSO: It’s a quibble, indeed, but when journalists, and bloggers who fancy themselves journalists, use the terms “cheap labor” or “cheap Chinese…,” do they even realize the derogatory manner in which this negatively brands a citizenry that their so-called liberal hearts so bleed for? Even if Chinese find the freedom so many want for them, they will spend a generation dumping the global perception that they themselves are “cheap” and incapable of quality instead of it just being a product of their current economic conditions.