Top: Tim Cook and Steve Jobs; photo credit to James Martin/CNET. Bottom: Mike Daisey at the Public Theater; photo credit to Mike Daisey.

[Editors’ Note:  This letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is one of several written by participants in the Fall 2011 Theater Teen Reviewers and Critics program after attending a performance of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS at the Public Theater.  At the end of Mike’s Daisey’s solo performance, fliers are distributed with information about the labor practices he discusses in the show, along with Tim Cook’s email address and a call to action.  Mr. Daisey suggested emailing Mr. Cook with concerns.  He politely asks that you do not send SPAM.  We obliged, and decided to publish them as open letters as well.]

Dear Mr. Cook,

This letter an expression of outrage and concern after watching THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS by Mike Daisey. Although the Apple company’s trade practices and manufacturing partners are widely known, Mike Daisey shows us both the innovation and ingenuity of Apple, Steve Jobs and the horrible conditions  and practices used to produce the shiny glass and aluminum products that we love. This isn’t an accusation that you are purposely commissioning sweatshops and abusing foreign workers, but the system used to produce electronics and other products for the first world is unsustainable. Ultimately, this is class warfare.

When the computers and smart phones and tablets popular nowadays are being more and more ingrained into our lifestyles, we, as a society, need to consider what sort of effects these products come with. While having foreign labor manufacture Apple products may be cheap, this strictly enforces a class based world economy, where the undervalued labor of factory workers is exploited for our gain. While I appreciate the fact that Apple sticks to working designs, more sustainable, longer-lasting products are necessary for  a continuous growth trend. Essentially, the current model is formed on the basis that slavery is sustainable, a question tested and debated throughout history.

Mike Daisey’s one-man show isn’t all about being informative. While importing and making aware to the public this issue is important, Mike takes a further step to humanize the workers who make our goods. Through simple dialogue, we feel empathy for the workers in Shenzhen, where the giant Foxconn plant manufacture Apple, and other products. A powerful line is said when Mike describes a worker commenting on Mike’s iPad, which was exactly like the thousands the worker helped assemble. Playing with the display, he comments that “it’s a kind of magic.”

We, as a society, like to think that we have a moral and ethical view on our actions. We genuinely want to believe that we do good. However, Mike Daisey’s show only demonstrates that we lose track of this morality easily. We don’t empathize with the exploited workers overseas because we don’t think about them. Yet, we hold in our hands the very things that they built; we wear them on our body and place them in our houses.

Apple is a giant company now that has a responsibility, not only to shareholders or even customers, but to the world. Being large enough to influence history is to hold a huge responsibility. Perpetuating the class divisions and supporting exploitation only traps the people below you in their respective economic classes. Extraordinary design and innovation is something truly admirable, but supporting oppressive manufacturing companies only stifles growth later on by suppressing the lives of the working class. Apple can do a lot to change this practice and support sustainability, and this writing is to help you realize that supporting what amounts to slavery is probably not sustainable, definitely unethical, and basically evil. In the end, this just destroys the amazing human ingenuity and innovation that made Apple great in the first place.

-Lucian Li