China and the Hybrid Car

The advent of hybrid cars in China has brought about several moral and ethical issues. There are many ethical and moral issues surrounding this. This section will discuss the following: China's monopolization of the hybrid car manufacturing industry, the poor working conditions faced by its manufacturing workers and lastly, most car companies are outsourcing their hybrid manufacturing in China because of the country's cheap labor. The following paragraphs will try to explain each one of these.

It has always been said that competition is good for the economy. A monopoly is not. China has an abundant supply of materials needed to produce hybrid cars. With an abundance of supply, like these rare metals found in China, manufacturing these hybrid cars costs them cheaper to produce. China in fact produces 97 percent of the word's rare earths (Luft, Vorona, 2010). China has decided to cut exports of these rare materials by 72 percent. Their rationale behind this is that China needs these precious materials in China because of their fast economic growth. Deng Xiaoping, China's leader in the year 1992 said the Middle East has oil, China has rare earths (Luft, Vorona, 2010). Statements like this goes to show China's mentality in trying to monopolize whatever industry they can monopolize.

The second moral and ethical issue brought about by the hybrid car is the work conditions in these hybrid manufacturing factories in China. Chinese laborers get little to no pay. According to manufacturingnews.com, an average Chinese wage is $0.57 per hour, which equates to $104 per month. Many workers work for far less than that average amount. Looking at these daunting figures, Chinese laborers are amongst the lowest paid in the world. Not only are their workers grossly underpaid, some are not paid at all. These Chinese workers are also forced to work under hazardous working conditions and denied medical assistance when they're