So since you need comment credit and I need help narrowing down my project, I thought I'd throw this question out there:
Which companies have you had terrible experiences with? (Regarding their business ethics)
Please tell me any big or small companies, local or national, it doesn't matter, any company that you know of that has less-than-ideal ethical values/policies. Please remember that the question I am focusing on is which companies place a numerical value on human life and suffering and how do they justify it? So the more relevant experience/story/whatever you've got, the better. But also, wherever there are smaller ethical issues there are likely to be bigger problems as well.
Thanks guys!
Tess,
ReplyDeletethe obvious direction to look is the "Merchants of Death" (to use a Christopher Buckley reference), namely Tobacco, Alcohol, and Firearms. But that has also been done to death, so to speak. Then we have clothing industries which have less then ethical stances regarding their third world work forces. Same goes for toy manufacturers. Then you have the question of using undocumented workers, where the workers basically become slaves. So, a decision I think you need to make is whether you want to focus on the production, employees, or customers because that generates different answers on which direction to go. Once that decision is made there is a boatload of more narrowing choices.
--Van
I already mentioned this to you already, but the company Monsanto is probably one of the most evil companies i know of. (if you don't believe it, just google it. the 2nd suggested hit is "monsanto evil" haha). In all of my environmental classes Monsanto has been brought up as an example of a really big bully that puts smalls farmers out of business by suing them. You can't even plant a seed in the ground anymore without their permission! Sometimes farmers that use heirloom seeds (because the seeds can actually be harvested and replanted) are situated next to other farms that use Monsanto seeds and those Monsanto seeds blow over to heirloom seed fields and a few Monsanto crops will spring up in the heirloom farmer's fields. Monsanto will come to their farm and sue those farmers for everything they're worth. It's disgusting. Even though it was an honest mistake Monsanto sues them for using their product without paying for it. (or it's some other equally ridiculous claim). Really, watching the documentary Food, Inc. It also touches on awful factory farms, which is entirely different category of evil companies. My best advice: watch the documentary Food, Inc. and write about Monsanto.
ReplyDeleteMy vote is the EVIL EMPIRE ... no really... that's what my family calls Walmart. It reminds us of Darth Vader - having to have their hands in, on, or around everything! Where I don't necessarily believe in Unions, they will fire you if the believe you have even considered joining one. They force the people they buy form to push for ways to keep things low price (even if it means sending business out of the USA). They work hard to come into towns (they want a store for every 100,000 people) and then low cut the prices at that store so as to put the individual business under so they can put their prices back up. If you don't believe that about the prices just compare prices between the Walmart in Orem and the one in Lindon. 15 minutes should not make a difference in prices -- but it does!
ReplyDeleteThe tobacco companies are number one for sure(nothing against smokers). Next I would look into the pharmaceutic companies. On the pharma companies you should be able to find plenty of info regarding tested meds they've sold knowing they had very adverse side effects. They've helped keep lots of people healthy and alive but how many have they knowingly put at risk/killed?
ReplyDeleteI second Monsanto, and rather than simply focusing on disregard for human life, you could write about general disregard for life, including humans when it comes to their employees and the health of their consumers, as well as their disgusting exploitation of animals as commodities. And the fact that they intentionally keep the consumer ignorant of their practices. You could also bring competition into your discussion, as in their willingness to put smaller, local farmers out of business when it comes to forcing them to purchase GMO seeds and prosecuting them for saving seeds. I would also suggest Food, Inc., and depending on how you take your argument, I can suggest a few others as well. I just pulled up this article online, but you can find a lot of information about the issue: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122498255
ReplyDeleteTess-
ReplyDeleteI've recently heard of several people who have had major issues with their home alarm contracts sold to them by APX. It would be interesting to see how the door-to-door sales manipulate others into getting their products. I worked for part of a summer doing door-to-door sales and I know that many of the reps that I worked with would completely lie to their clients in order to get business. Just an idea.
Okay Tess,
ReplyDeleteso your post worked brilliantly--even my wife Sarah looked over my shoulder as I worked and commented that it was a clever way to stimulate discussion. Well done! Now that you've generated several thoughtful comments from your peers, gaining suggestions for some starting places such as Walmart and Monsanto, you can return to your well-formulated research question ("which companies put a numerical value on human life and how do they justify it?"). The real trick will be to get hard evidence about the numerical values. Everyone knows this is done, but companies have every motivation to keep the calculations to themselves. (Insurance companies have to put numerical values on human lives as an innate part of their policy writing and claims adjustments, but that's a little different perhaps than what you're after.) Anyone who's seen _Fight Club_ has been viscerally disgusted by the cold-blooded calculation of cost-benefit ratios for multinationals evaluating whether it's cheaper to pay for the death than to fix the problem that caused it, but putting a coherent set of case studies from real companies making real calculations out there is both ambitious and well worth doing. How do you plan to get those numbers?
Tess,
ReplyDeleteyou've got a bunch of good responses (and we all remember the Ford Pinto as the perfect example of just such a human life = $$$ calculation). So we know actual calculation in that example. Are there (and here I'm playing off Mark's questions) indirect ways we can recognize such calculation? Can we look at practices and figure "if they're doing that, then they must care less for human well being than for making a profit"?
So, Hegel and Marx (and all the economics Grant Weaver suggested) -- will you be expanding that in the near future?
Tess, I'm looking into trying to get money by applying to SCOP. I noticed that you were awarded SCOP money in Summer 09. I'm curious what your internship was so maybe I can get a better idea of what the career development center is looking for. Any advice or insight would be useful!
ReplyDeleteI second Drew's ideas, but not just about the owners of APX systems, also the ways that people "higher up" manipulate their salespeople. APX has so much going on inside of the company that it is ridiculous!
ReplyDelete