Tuyen's Blog

Tim Lincecum asks for $21.5M in arbitration as San Francisco Giants offer $17M

Giants ace Tim Lincecum asked for $21.5 million in salary arbitration Tuesday and was offered $17 million by the club.
via espn.go.com

Whoa! I'm a big Tim Lincecum fan but $21.5M is a lot of cheddar. Granted, this is just a starting point in negotiations but the salaries for elite MLB pitchers seems to be growing to unsustainable levels. If Tim gets say a two or three year deal worth $20M per year, that would make him about 15% of their expected payroll. I have a hard time thinking anyone can influence the outcome of a club that much given they only play once every five days. 15% of your payroll to play in about 30 or so games? Ouch...

'Immense Pressure' Leads to Cancellation of Steve Jobs Figurine

...noting that it will cease production out of respect for Jobs and following "immense pressure" from lawyers representing Apple and Jobs' family.
via macrumors.com

I wrote about this earlier. Glad to see appropriate action was taken. I had a discussion with some friends about why I felt something like this was wrong but could care less if say someone printed a bunch of non-NBA licensed Monta Ellis jerseys and sold them. First off, this is clearly someone trying to cash in on someone else's death. There's just something morbid about that. And two, it's more "human" than say counterfeiting a jersey or putting someone's name on a product to trick people into thinking they endorse it. You're taking someone's very likeness/image and profiting from it. That's where it crosses the line for me. Would I have been as bent out of shape if say it was Amy Winehouse or Dan Wheldon? Probably not because I don't have a strong opinion about these people. But in principal I still would think it's wrong and would have no issue with their families suing the profiteers.

Chinese manufacturing... Love it or hate it, you can't live without it

Apple released its annual Supplier Responsibility Report which discusses the status of its manufacturing partners (mainly in China) on issues of worker rights, factory conditions, etc.  Not so coincidentally, last week's This American Life episode centered around Mike Daisey and his one man show about what he saw while on a visit to Shenzen where many of the big manufacturing companies are located.

Though the first act of the episode was meant to illicit an emotional response in favor of the poor downtrodden workers, the second act painted a much more balanced and realstic view of the plight of workers in these plants.  The fact of the matter is that places like Foxconn have improved the lives of many of these people.  Are conditions as good as they are in first world countries?  Of course not, but that's a very first world opinion.  Ask anyone who used to make $50 a month in the country side doing back breaking labor if they would trade it for a $250 a month job doing a different kind of hard labor in Shenzen.  It's a no brainer.  As consumers in developed nations, we should absolutely push for better working conditions for the people who make our goods.  But progress takes time and why should we expect developing countries to suddenly leapfrog steps in their industrialization when countries like the US did not.

The one hopeful thing I took from the episode was that cold hard economics and not journalists or people like Mike Daisey will ultimately effect greater change.  As workers become more skilled, they also have more options to work at places that have better working conditions.  If places like Foxconn wish to retain these skilled employees that they've spent time and money training, they'll need to improve the environment these people do business in.  That, more than a sensationalistic one man show, will be how China and other developing countries move forward.

This is pretty deplorable

via venturebeat.com

I don't know if this is just profiteering or a misguided homage. Either way, it's pretty disgusting. I knew people were going to try and make money off the death of Steve Jobs. Some were authorized, this is obviously not. The company behind this could have made some veiled attempt at sincerity by donating a portion of proceeds to cancer research. I hope Apple legal is on this and gets them shut down before they sell a single one.