We're discussing what I wrote and what I think. It's irrelevant what Thomas Friedman thinks. Those red herrings are really beginning to stink up the place.

So you defend Foxconn. Of course. Do you think that it would be employing so many hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers without the active cooperation of the government? Looks like a franchise to me. Foxconn is acting as agent of the Chinese government.

Do you really want to defend Foxconn? Try googling for recent news. The astronomical suicide rate that's been going on for years. Latest is last week's threat by 300 Foxconn workers to commit suicide over working conditions and pay. You'd love to spin the story that these wretched peasants are pathetically grateful for their tea and biscuit and bunkbed, but the facts tell a very different story.

And then there's the remark by that Terry Gou you profess to admire, at the company Christmas gala in December:

“Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache,” said Terry Gou, chairman of Taiwan’s Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn.

ZDNet and 18 million other sources.

Attendees reportedly thought that was hilarious, especially when a zoo director then took the stage to provide the assembled managers with pointers on animal husbandry.

Terry Gou, Foxconn, the Chinese government...you really want to hold them up as exemplars of free-market capitalism? Seriously?