As hard as it may be for most Americans to believe, apparently things are so bad in rural China that those Foxconn jobs are actually in demand. 
All the media coverage of Foxconn, with its harsh working conditions, long hours, child labor, and lack of workers' rights, might make it hard to believe the demand for these jobs. But, as Paul Krugman noted way back in the '90s, these factories "are a big improvement over the previous, less visible rural poverty," he wrote in an early Slate piece. Industrialization, hardships included, is a necessary step toward modernity, the argument goes.
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