We're All Guilty in 'iPad Suicides'

At least 10 young workers at China's Foxconn factory have killed themselves this year, and you could argue that pretty much everyone reading this was in some way complicit in their deaths. Why? Because Foxconn makes products for Apple, HP, Dell, Microsoft, Nintendo and more, so odds are that at least some of your gadgets were made there. “It's our job—your job and my job—to help stop it.” writes Farhad Manjoo of Slate.

Like it or not, we couldn't afford any of the gadgets we enjoy if Chinese laborers weren't willing to spend 12 hours a day producing them, in reportedly brutal conditions, for about $300 a month. Apple and company have expressed sorrow over the suicides, and vowed to investigate, but unless we consumers make a fuss, they're just not going to do it. We can't exactly boycott—we'd have to boycott every modern product. But you could, say, shoot an e-mail to Steve Jobs. Sometimes he even responds. (More Foxconn stories.)