Dave Ross Commentary – Listen: Should you feel guilty about your iPhone?

Actor Mike Daisy is touring a one-man show Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.

Part of it is a comedy routine about our obsession with computer gadgets, but the other part — is about the Chinese workers, some as young as 12, who assemble those gadgets at a giant factory in Shenzen China. A factory were suicides are so common there are nets around the building — all in the name of cutting costs:

“The labor cost of an iPhone is 80 cents,” says Daisy.

Listen: Interview with Mike Daisy

Mike Daisy managed to do what most reporters have not — actually got into that factory unescorted — by pretending to be a US businessman.

He admits he wants us all to feel a little guilty about the lives of the workers who make our gadgets. But he also found that those same factories, by bringing together so many young laborers in huge dormitories, are gradually undermining the Chinese police state:

“They still find time to actually date, a liberal progressive behavior that totally didn’t exist even 20 years ago in China, and they want things. While I was there, there were strikes happening at Honda plants. These are strikes in a county where even being in a union gets you thrown in prison. There’s incredible social turmoil just underneath the surface. And as these people realize what a voice they have, it’s actually harder and harder for the central Chinese government to keep control,” says Daisey.

A Chinese spring to join the Arab spring?

“It’s going to come to a head eventually,” says Actor Mike Daisey.

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‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs’ is playing at the Seattle Repertory Theatre April 22 to May 22. Find more things to do in our full event calendar.