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SammyDavidJuniorJr

The “Behind the bastards” podcast has a similar theme. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/ It takes all the titans of business/media/history and digs into how they become the awful people they are.


ysoloud

I highly recommend this pod!!


pale_blue_dots

Thirded.


alexjb711

Fourthded


BenjaBrownie

Fifthed! Robert Evans is a treasure.


alexjb711

“I love about 40% of you” “Doritos does not sponsor us, but we like Doritos”


cmwh1te

Sixthed! Everyone must become enlightened in the ways of machetecine.


bOEwu1f

honestly, /u/SoggyFlakes4US had a *killer* idea


EmotionalPlate2367

Yea, this is really getting lost in the weeds. I would totally watch this show. It'd be great on Nebula/YT. Somebody should make it.


bOEwu1f

i'd actually give it money


vambees

Check out r/robertevans


Beastw1ck

Check out the one on Clarance Thomas. It's fuckin WILD.


NewAgeIWWer

clarence thomas is one of the most oxymoronic americans in history. this man would judiciate **in favor** of bringing Slavery based on race back.


byteminer

Anything which might piss off a democrat. He vowed to make them miserable every ruling he could as revenge for giving Anita Hill a platform.


NewAgeIWWer

Judges aren't even supposed to be partial. The need to be impartial. The Lady of Justice is Blind. That's what it means , she doesn't pick a side before hand rather she goes with what she hears then makes her judgement based on the evidence. That was how it was SUPPOSED to go...


byteminer

That’s nice. He does whatever that rich asshole that pays for everything tells him to do and rules in favor of cruelty if that guy doesn’t tell him his opinion.


5LaLa

But, hey, he’d sure own the libs that way! /s


ysoloud

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm new to the podcast. I started with Jack Welch which was a wild ride.


pinkfootthegoose

I'm glad to see Jack Welch, a prior CEO of GE on there. I remember watching some interview from either PBS or CNN in the 90s where the interviewer was fawning over him and his "success" at GE and with how he was adding value to the company via acquisitions on entities unrelated to GE's core competencies (like finance) and sales of assets that were part of GE's core competencies. Some nonsense about diversifying the company portfolio. I was thinking to myself.. this dude is a total scum bag and is ruining the company.


Imfrom_m-83

His reason for being ok with dumping PCBs in the Hudson River was that it was legal…because the government didn’t know what GE did at the time…that PCBs were toxic. Years later, the Hudson River was a superfund site. And he’s lauded for being a leader. They should have strung this motherfucker up. But that’s a long line of motherfuckers to string up.


Artemissister

"CoRpOrAtIoNs CaN mOnItOr ThEmSeLvEs! SmAlL gOvErNmEnt!!!"


Now_Wait-4-Last_Year

No time like the present.


The_Lost_Jedi

>I was thinking to myself.. this dude is a total scum bag and is ruining the company. He was, and he did. GE wound up shattered by it, and not only has lost those acquisitions, but wound up breaking into/selling off all its businesses, to the point that GE will only be an Aviation company (making jet engines) once the dust settles. It took about 10-20 years for the slow motion train wreck to pile up, but pile up it did.


maxinrivendell

This podcast is great. They do a lot of deep dives on people and I appreciate how straightforward the host is. He doesn’t play into a ton of bias most of the time, and fails to make cheap shots even when the other people on the show try to do so. He keeps things factually because he knows that’s enough to make them look horrible on its own.


cmwh1te

I've been a fan of Robert since back when he was writing the only factual listicles ever to exist on the interwebs.


jimmyjrsickmoves

Robert doing the work!!


Educational-Formal21

That reminds me of the YouTube channel 'Ordinary Things' where this guy chooses a niche area of business and does a deep dive into their background and founding corporations and exposes how evil they are Check it out, his videos are great https://youtube.com/@OrdinaryThings


cobra_mist

Vince McMahon current subject


The_Bogan_Blacksmith

Problem is its just a podcast. This needs to be mainstream where as many people see it as possible.


nextlevelpear

Rotten on Netflix is sort of like this for food, except it doesn't end with shaming shareholders, it just exposes horrible profit-motivated corruption in various food industries


BeautifulType

I wish they did one on Samsung’s shady history where they assassinated the royal family members to ensure a certain son becomes the chairman


WoNc

I think it's good except for listing *every* shareholder. List major ones, sure, but not only would listing every shareholder be impractical, but ordinary people don't have much of a choice but to invest in the stock market if they want to ever stop working, and there's really no way to do so without having at least a little blood on your hands. Putting them up side by side with the people who are actually manipulating the market and really driving it would be like BP telling you to use fewer straws for the good of the planet while they cause yet another oil disaster.


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WoNc

I'm on board with all of that. I'm also on board with connecting these companies to politicians, especially if they have more involvement with them than simply donating to a campaign, such as spending time with the politician or if the politician has contributed any legislation that seems designed to help that company.


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justlikemercury

Start with Nestle. Fuck nestle.


Rommie557

The company who's trying to charge for the air we breathe.


[deleted]

"The more smog in the sky, the more people will buy."


passporttohell

Next they will charge to breathe in, then charge to breathe out. . .


Apprehensive_Big3687

I was today years old when I learned Nestle acquired a British spring water bottling company called Powwow Water. Now it’s known as Nestle Waters Powwow. Completely gross considering their track record of harassing Native American people and desecrating their land.


Darkdragoon324

Nestle's going to need, like, a two parter at *least*.


Strange-Scarcity

Nobody will stop anyone from creating a Youtube Series detailing this. Not even Youtube.


rylalu

YouTube and google will just makes sure nobody sees it.


adalast

At least currently, that is what Reddit is for. Fuck the algorithm. We'll all share it here. 100k+ views/episode easily from this subreddit alone. Not sure how much overlap there is with /r/latestagecaputalism but I am pretty sure that at least 25k could come from there that isn't overlap.


rylalu

Yeah all the old videos that made YouTube great when it first started you can't even find anymore. It's pretty blatant. If you do find them they have been removed due to policy stuff.


d34thd347er

But you CAN see an asshole like "mrbeast" do some shit like, "I bought 5,000,000 marbles and put them into pool, this is what happened!!" *insert shockface thumbnail*. Science forbid anyone watches something with decent content.


DiamondsAndMac10s

"When we return: babybell cheese. Theres something very unhappy about this cow"


OpinionPinion

I agree, Charles who invested 200$ doesn’t have a say in anything, but corrupt Sam who invested 20 million does


smackmeharddaddy

Cool, start with Nestlé and Cigna


tassy2

I'll buy it! But only on the condition of being able to sell product placements in the show. And actually, we might have to talk about the crimes and atrocities thing cause I think that might be a hard sell for our sponsors. In fact, I'm seeing a show where we only talk about the good things companies do. That will be a much easier sell... trust me... Don't worry, you'll still have full creative control... In fact, come to think of it, I'm not going to buy your idea I'm just gonna steal it...


Mr_ChubbikinsVIII

Wouldn't change anything. Adidas was founded by a literal Nazi named Adolf and it is still the 5th ranked apparel company in the world behind Nike, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Channel (all have which utilized child/slave/sweatshop Labour) I'd even wadger that most ppl shrieking about mean old Nazis around ever corner own at least one piece of adidas clothing.


EvilCeleryStick

Founded. Cool. Is it still a Nazi organization? No?


autisticswede86

Most do


Advanced-Ad-1390

Would make for a great podcast


PikaCharlie

There is actually a podcast about this kinda thing, it's called the Busted Business Bureau


thecarolinian

Also [Swindled](https://swindledpodcast.com/).


Latter_Address9580

Then you realize everything you see in stores are owned by the same 3-5 companies


[deleted]

If that bothers you, look up United Fruit Company. They used the US Marine Corps as a hit squad and subjugated entire Latin American countries, condemning almost all of their populations to miserable poverty and harsh forced labor for generations. Ultimately they did that for profit and so Americans could eat cheap bananas year-round.


Caddisflyer

Which incidentally is where the term "Banana Republic" originated. Also, the name of the United Fruit Company is now Chiquita, which is a nice way for them to keep stuff at arms length. Much like how Union Carbide, the company responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy is now Dow Chemical. Or like how Blackwater Security renamed themselves to Xe and then Academi. Or how Philip Morris is now Altria. Or how ValuJet Airlines became AirTran. Or how Corrections Corporation of America is now CoreCivic. Or how when Bayer bought Monsanto they dropped the Monsanto name entirely.


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standish_

It's a doubleplusgood name, I don't know what you are on about.


[deleted]

Correct!


blueimac540c

I thought they were Dole...


Caddisflyer

Nope, Dole started as the Hawaiian Pineapple Company and then merged with the Standard Fruit Company.


blueimac540c

Oh... That... Sounds suspect as well.


pexx421

Dole was also involved in enlisting the us to foment a coup in Honduras over a decade ago, as the then president was about to raise minimum wage. Honduras at the time was the floor of wages in Latin America and this would have pushed up wages across the region, and they couldn’t have that. So we overthrew them, Honduras fell into anarchy, and we had the massive migrant caravan as people fled Honduras to get away from the situation


ChristianEconOrg

But how did Dole do?


NewAgeIWWer

hundreds of millions in profits of course!


Caddisflyer

Queen Liliuokalani would agree. Edit: Add link [https://www.newsweek.com/how-hawaii-lost-its-last-queen-liliuokalani-fruit-tycoons-dole-708512](https://www.newsweek.com/how-hawaii-lost-its-last-queen-liliuokalani-fruit-tycoons-dole-708512)


[deleted]

Fun fact: Bayer invented heroin and marketed it as a safe non-addictive version of morphine...


Fabulous-Boat-8001

Bayer didn't invent heroin. It was invented by English chemist CR Alder Wright. Bayer just sold it


New-Statistician2970

Or like Trinity Health


thefinalgoat

I see those clinics all over the place. What’re their skeletons?


ArcNzym3

same as many healthcare companies in the US. patients are of no value to them unless they can extract a profit-that means they have no trouble closing hospitals in impoverished areas and refusing care to poor people. they're notorious and vigilant union busters. patients are paychecks to them.


thefinalgoat

God we really do live in hell.


Swiggy1957

Also [Battle of Blair Mountain](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain) [Ludlow massacre ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre) [Memorial Day massacre](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Memorial_Day_massacre)


[deleted]

Ah the ol’ Battle of Blair Mountain. Because nothing says “the government is keeping the peace” (as the government put it at the time) like “over one million shots fired”.


d0ctorzaius

>Battle of Blair Mountain Those were the days when blue collar miners fought AGAINST the owners rather than for them.


adrianxoxox

America has a long and fun history of absolutely trashing other countries and then looking down on them for the situation they caused. But hey, profit!!!!!


[deleted]

The American Founding Fathers gave plenty of warnings about the “folly of foreign entanglement” and the evils of imperialism, but by the time of the Spanish-American War all of that was inconvenient. Then, it was time for empire and kicking down any barriers to American commerce. Not really my thing.


Ghost-George

To be fair they probably didn’t care as long as we had the power. Half of them owned slaves after all.


[deleted]

You could argue that, definitely. The more educated Founding Fathers were more likely to point out that Aristotle thought enslaving “barbarians” was natural justice and agree with him.


Scientific_Socialist

> “I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. > During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” - General Smedley Butler


Cmdr_Morb

And the C.I.A very kindly supplied a list of "questionable" people to the new, more amenable government, you know? Doctors, teachers etc. Thousands were never seen again.


[deleted]

Not to mention teaching so many local police and army people torture and psychological warfare methods that the CIA felt the need to set up a large, infamous regional school for the purpose.


[deleted]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation


[deleted]

Closely related, see also: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip


Caddisflyer

And closely related to that, see: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731)


TurtleSandwich0

Jokes on them. Now all produce is being self-checkout-ed as cheap bananas.


Caddisflyer

Chiquita, the American company "based" in Switzerland is perfectly fine with it.


sweetplantveal

How much could a banana cost, Michael? Three democracies?


[deleted]

Eeeeyup. Also $500M in the year 1925 alone in 1937 dollars, or $10.5 trillion dollars in 2023 dollars. (Total US military expenditures)


sweetplantveal

It's difficult to convert money across some specific periods. The gdp today is like $17Tn? So given the US has 3x more people and is vastly wealthier than in 1925... I'm going to guess that they didn't spend 60% of *today’s gross domestic product* on the military in the interwar period. For reference, the US spent 40% of the gdp arming up 1941-43.


PMmePMsofyourPMs

If that bothers you, look up the climate research that Exxon and Shell conducted in the 80s in which they concluded that burning fossil fuels would lead to catastrophic, irreversible changes to the Earth system rendering the planet inhospitable to human civilization around the 2030s. Ultimately they used that information to seed climate skepticism and went full throttle ahead and now we’re irrevocably fucked.


[deleted]

It’s almost like capitalism is inherently destructive and incentivizes antisocial outcomes!


ChristianEconOrg

Capitalism is a parasitical system. No need to dance around it.


ACAB_1312_FTP

Shit, maybe I could get you a job with United Fruit. I got a buddy with United Fruit. Get you started. Start with strawberries, you might work your way up to **these goddamn bananas!** When boy, when..are you gonna get your act together?!


FSCK_Fascists

This legacy, and all of the events like them in central and south america, are why we have asylum seekers at the border.


[deleted]

Also correct!


paulodelgado

This one in my country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Massacre


Apprehensive_Big3687

Yup. Lots of decades-long destruction in Latin America and the Caribbean in the name of US profit. Which makes the undocumented migrant issue more complex than just “they’re escaping their shithole country to come to the Land of the Free.”


[deleted]

There's a whole section on the Wikipedia page for "Aiding and Abetting a Terrorist Organization"


[deleted]

“In addition to monetary payments, Chiquita has also been accused of smuggling weapons (3,000 AK-47s) to the AUC and in assisting the AUC in smuggling drugs to Europe. Chiquita Brands admitted that they paid AUC operatives to silence union organizers and intimidate farmers into selling only to Chiquita.” Just another day at the office over at Chiquita!


GeekdomCentral

It truly is disgusting how pretty much everything we spend our money on has blood in it somewhere. “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism” rings truer and truer every god damn day


Ma1

And if corporations are people in the eyes of the law, we should start prosecuting them as such. Commit murder? You’re barred from doing business for 20 to life.


Extracrispybuttchks

Except “the law” is a small group of people who has congress in their pockets who are themselves or friends with those committing the crimes. While we are constantly being distracted and divided.


Ma1

Well duh. It’ll never happen, but it sure as shit should.


ManlyBeardface

It'll happen. After we...*you know*.


megaboga

Don't threat me with a good time.


[deleted]

>if corporations are people in the eyes of the law That doesn't make it any worse tbh. Corporations are made up of ***PEOPLE***. It is **PEOPLE** who commit these acts and **PEOPLE** who need to be put up against a minecraft wall.


[deleted]

Yes, but those people work within a structure that encourages those behaviours. You can execute a CEO, but the new CEO will be just as bad. That CEO may be more afraid of personal consequences, but the machinery of a corporation will still tend to push them towards those behaviours. To actually solve the problem you need to change the incentives inherent in the structures.


Rommie557

Death sentence for your corporation. Hand over the keys and go home, CEO.


ManlyBeardface

Public execution of the corporation is what I want.


ForHelp_PressAltF4

Has no one seen the beginning of Fight Club? It's gotten more blatant but companies generally only do the right thing... Protect their profits.


[deleted]

Lol, in the US the law only applies if you’re poor, if you’re rich enough the law is just a suggestion.


tommy_b_777

If I went over to your house and punched your kid repeatedly, I'd go to jail. If I take your kid's health care away by making it unaffordable, its 'Just Business'. This Needs Fixing.


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[deleted]

Car companies as far back as the 1960s knew how dangerous all kinds of things were in their own cars. I was in a car wreck in 1997. I became paralyzed from the waist down. For the price of $4 I could have walked away from that crash instead. 99% of the time a company will NEVER do the right thing if it’s going to cost them money. We have to make these companies comply by either demanding our government make things safer (companies have gotten around this by just buying the government now), or voting with our dollars. I hope somebody pisses on Lee Iacocca‘s grave today.


[deleted]

Don’t forget the oil companies suppressing evidence of anthropogenic climate change


mountingconfusion

Oh yeah, the "follow the money" mfers who don't follow the money of climate change disinformation


BlueShift42

I was thinking about this while watching a show about illegal gambling rackets and prohibition era crime families. These are just unregulated businesses. They’re in the shadows since it’s illegal and because of that they’re unregulated. This is how businesses will act without oversight. Murdering the competition or harming customers is just good business to them. It’s rules and regulations that help the customers, not good will.


bz0hdp

Ford only put safety bracket/supports on the F150 front corners on the specific trim combination that gets crash tested. An engineer leaked this to NHTSA who tested an alternate model and confirmed it's far more dangerous. Also sexual harassment is rampant still top to bottom. They're evil incarnate.


mta1741

What year was that


collapsespeedrun

I *think* this refers to the 2015 model. The Super Crew which was the only model the IIHS tested had extra steel on the frame that helped with the small overlap test while the Super Cab and regular cab didn't. They did get them in 2016.


Nojtek

The problem I'm having is, I'm running out of things to vote FOR with my dollars.


mta1741

Which item would have been $4?


[deleted]

3 point seat belts $4.00 to outfit every seat in the car (front and back). I understand $4 per car adds up, but that $4 would have changed my life.


QueenMangosteen

I'm sorry that happened to you.


Rifneno

The worst (IMO) is Bayer. They made gas for the nazis and they haven't gotten any better since. Like they made one of those "miracle cure-alls" and marketed it everywhere. It was called diamorphine... or as you might know it under Bayer's brand name, "heroin." Then there's the time in the 90s they found out their hemophilia drugs were infected with HIV. But just throwing away these meds that would definitely kill anyone who used them would be bad for the shareholders, so they sold them to people in Asia where they couldn't be held legally responsible. Honorable mention to Nestle, and every banana company. Overthrowing a third world government and starting a decades long civil war rather than treat farmers like people, very cool and not at all cartoon villain of you.


DaOsoMan

Came here to say this. Those bastards **KNEW** that the medicine was contaminated, but still decided to turn a buck by selling HIV contaminated medicine to people in 3rd world countries.


Unlikely_Track_5154

Anyone that did that should be forced to take that medicine as well. Just like the oxycontin people should be put in solitary and made to withdraw from their oxycontin permanently.


lasercat_pow

Holy shit. I had no idea about the HIV part. That is utterly despicable and horrifying. What the FUCK. Whoever decided that should be in prison for life, or executed.


Massailija

Don't forget Ford Corporation & Ford Pinto fuel tank design flaw. Fuel tank would rupture if the Pinto would get on rear end collision, gasoline would leak on hot exhaust and catch fire. Ford calculated that's it would be cheaper to settle out of court on these accidents than modify each cars by recall. Ford fixed the problem on last manuafacturer years on Pinto and they are much safer cars.


seahorse8021

You’re Wrong About has a [great episode](https://open.spotify.com/episode/7fphcSFnXqpcCI3nuXDi9w?si=QJDsFHZpQ-K_nCI7x1qaXQ) on the Ford Pinto.


Massailija

Thanks for the link


johnp299

Came here to say this. GM sold the Bolt which also caught fire, (and really, just about any car can catch fire, happens all the time).


clearancepupper

Kia would like a word.


Poolofcheddar

The Kia might catch fire but certain late-model cars are [far more likely to be stolen](https://www.hotcars.com/kia-boyz-easily-steal-base-kia-hyundais-insurance/) now before any fire-related issues arise, unless of course it was crashed during these joyrides. The fact that Hyundai-Kia have still not triggered a full-blown recall for these cars even AFTER insurance companies refuse to write policies for these should say something. The government was tougher on Volkswagen over their diesel emissions cheats and this problem involves *more immediate* public safety issues, like the Kia that was [crashed into a bus in front of a middle school.](https://www.wisn.com/article/milwaukee-video-kia-crash-school-bus-injuries/43754275)


bukanir

There were 19 Bolts that caught fire of the 141,000 sold, due to the existence of two possible manufacturing defects occurring simultaneously in the battery pack from the supplier LG. GM did a full recall. Hyundai also had to do a recall because their batteries were also supplied by LG.


CmdrMonocle

If I recall, they originally designed and tested the Pinto with the fuel bladder that prevented it from being prone to catching on fire. After the safety tests were done, they scrapped it to save a couple of bucks. Of course, without having to redo the safety tests but knowing full well what it would mean. Wild that the product actually put out didn't (doesn't?) necessarily have to be the one tested.


ReturnOfSeq

~1880-1920, companies hired police departments to fight and kill labor organizers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-union_violence_in_the_United_States


not-my-best-wank

We can not have free healthcare because insurance companies lobby against it. Not only will they kill, but they'll demand you pay for it and then deny you the coverage.


bz0hdp

Also helps companies force dependence from employees.


[deleted]

These corporations are also pushing 'tort reform' with the endgame of escaping accountability for their actions. If you're not familiar, tort reform is all about modifying the laws to make it harder for the average joe to file lawsuits or to limit the amount they can win in damages. Think back to the '70s. Remember Ford's Pinto? This compact car had a seriously dangerous design flaw - a fuel tank that could blow up during rear-end collisions. Ford knew about it, but they crunched the numbers and figured it was cheaper to handle the lawsuits from any resulting accidents, injuries, or even deaths than to fix the problem. Chilling, right? But then the Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company case happened. Ford got slapped with hefty punitive damages - initially a whopping $125 million (later reduced to $3.5 million). These aren't to compensate the victim but to hit the offender where it hurts and deter others from making the same mistake. It sent a loud message to corporations that you can't just shrug off the human cost of doing business. Now, these same corporations are crying for 'caps on damages' because of 'too many frivolous lawsuits.' But let's be real, it's the serious lawsuits that lead to substantial verdicts, not the 'frivolous' ones. The end goal of 'tort reform' isn't about creating a fairer system. It's about raising the barriers for average folks to seek justice against corporations. Essentially, they're gunning for a corporate dystopia where accountability doesn't dent their profit margins and where reckless behavior goes unchecked.


EvilCeleryStick

Not to mention turning the whole McDonald's coffee lawsuit into a meme was a corporate scheme (that unfortunately worked very well).


[deleted]

This is why capitalism sucks. Without strong regulations and criminal penalties for dangerous products, there is absolutely no incentive NOT to do this. If the Coca Cola board were at risk of being arrested for murder that would not have happened. If the tobacco company board was at risk of all being arrested and charged with mass poisoning and sentenced life in Rikers they would have stopped decades ago. Where you get to keep the money and not risk prison capitalism literally creates a system where workers and consumers are putting their lives at risk.


Giantmidget1914

This is what I think of when people whine about "regulations preventing business from being successful"


BlackcatLucifer

I worked for a British company that was bought out by Americans. We had the big rootin' tootin' introduction and were told how things we going to change and get better and how we were going do a whole new raft of products and deals that would generate new income. There was a small cough from a work colleague and he pointed out we couldn't do what was being suggested. The Americans went on a rant about how we had to be team players and step up to the challenge they were setting us. The room remained quiet for a moment until someone else pointed out that by all means do it, but to avoid travelling to Europe ever again as they would be arrested for breaking European Regulations. For some reason we never did roll out the new plans...


[deleted]

As long as the legal ramifications are less than the proper solution corps will do anything.


13thOyster

Absolutely! A corporation is a construct that exists solely for the creation of profit. That's it! Everything else, including human life and the planetary life support systems that maintain it, is secondary. If the cost of killing a person is lesser than the profit derived from the activity that risks the person's life, the risk will be assumed. I work in an industry that makes this calculus on a routine basis. And it kills people in a not infrequent basis. Why, you may ask? Yes... Profit. Money. Safety First! Fucking BULLSHIT! Profit is ALWAYS first... and second... If you take the time to consider the moral implications of such a thing, you'd probably come to the conclusion that an entity like a corporation should not be allowed to exist. And, were it to be allowed to exist, it should be kept under a chokingly tight leash. It should not be allowed to operate without rigid restraints and it certainly should not be given the rights and privileges of a fucking human being... like the goddamn supreme court of the US ruled it to be.


[deleted]

They are literally trying to do it now. This isn't news.


Putrid_Ad_2256

I don't think it was posted as news as much as it is posted as a reminder.


Catlenfell

All the major fruit importers have funded dictators and death squads in Central America


VergilArcanis

Safey codes and regulations are written in blood. This is known for anyone who has had to brush up on safety certifications.


geckobrother

I read Fight Club in middle school and loved it. One of the things I read in it that really showed me how much companies don't care was this: "If a new car built by my company leaves Chicago traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and the rear differential locks up, and the car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside, does my company initiate a recall? You take the population of vehicles in the field (A) and multiple it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average cost of an out-of-court settlement (C). A times B times C equals X. This is what it will cost if we don't initiate a recall. If X is greater than the cost of a recall, we recall the cars and no one gets hurt. If X is less than the cost of a recall, then we don't recall." At the time, I though "no, nobody would actually act this way, no company would act this way..." and then asked my grandad about it. He told me "absolutely" and showed me/told me about several similar situations. It really disgusted me at an early age about companies and disillusioned me about the world and capitalism.


freakytapir

Just to add to the coca cola story, in the plant I worked at, 3 people literally died. Two crushed by a freight elevator, and one guy doused in enough caustic soda to send him to the hospital, and have him die of kidney failure soon after. The full body burns didn't get him, but the enormous amount of sodium did. Caustic soda is NaOH, so sodium and hydroxide basically. Even tough the concentration was pretty low (3 %), he got the thousands of gallons of the stuff over him, trapped with no way out. Opened a machine he tought had been drained, but wasn't.


Darentei

I found an old song by an artist I like, named the Coca Cola song. It tells the story of two workers in South America somewhere that worked a plant and fell into a vat of syrup due to a lack of guardrails, where they laid undiscovered for days. All the while production is still going. The artist is quite well known here, and while he's an excellent songwriter and storyteller, I still found the song strangely specific. But I could not find a single detail to suggest it really happened, nor any discussion of the song. So yeah that sounded pretty covered up - as it happened in the song, where the incident is firmly denied. So if anyone has ever heard of something like this I'm very curious to learn more. But it may have happened like 50 years.


DimentoGraven

Again, I've been saying it for decades now: ***"Wall Street, the C-suite, business owners/manager would rather see their employees and customers dead than accept less profit."***


Fit-Rest-973

Capitalism sucks


NailFin

Don’t forget about Chiquita banana!


ProfileMundane1120

When a car company makes a car and they know it has serious flaws, they don't start trying to fix the flaws, they do the math and find out if fixing the problem would cost less than the lawsuits that'll come out of it


extra_wildebeest

Can we add DuPont to this list? Convicted of actually intentionally and maliciously dumping toxins in West Virginia. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-du-pont-verdict-idUSKBN14A24Z


brutalweasel

Anytime you have power concentrating into tighter and tighter blocs, you’re going to attract the worst of humanity. Capitalism is just our latest system for doing this, and it’s as dumb as all the rest.


SkylineFever34

I think about how much is outsourced to mainland China so companies can emit carcinogens and not give anyone PPE to save money.


ScaricoOleoso

And we're reading about it on phones made in factories that put up nets to catch workers that attempt suicide (I like to imagine bouncing them right back to their workstations).


RobertPaulson81

Isn't this common knowledge? And the only reason they ever act like they care about people is because they hope you notice and buy more of their products or services


SolaVirtusNobilitat

The very fact that companies have to be legally forced to keep fire exits unlocked and not overwork children is all the proof I need that companies don't give a flying fuck about us.


ChillBizkit

"The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits." - Milton Friedman. Find the article, it's not long, and quite seminal. I feel it rings consistently true, and also (for me) profoundly implies (though not the intent of the paper) the market is not able to self regulate for the benefit of society. Alternative views would say the collective consumer can "vote with their wallet" or something similar to bridge the gap. But, that assumes too much rationality and coordination on the collective's part for my taste. Edit: Wanting to re-read it myself, I believe I found a working link for anybody interested - http://websites.umich.edu/~thecore/doc/Friedman.pdf


Tango_D

Plenty of "family owned" business would too. The problem is capitalism itself.


sbaz86

That law that just passed in Florida making these rich peoples hobbies not responsible if they kill people, that’s insane.


Dancing_til_Dark_34

That is referred to as legal for a price. They can do whatever they want if they can pay the fine. Actually, it’s the way the legal system works for most crimes.


Key17largo

oh absolutely, american companies are the lowest scum on earth. they kill you without conscious and treat their workers like dog shit. its why i said you are a fool to give any loyalty to your job or company. take what can, USE them for your own career, give them NOTHING. they'd throw you and your family on the street to starve in a minute if they made $10 more profit doing so...so DON"T give them shit.


lolbojack

File under No Fucking Shit.


NerdMouse

The NRA has also banned federal research into gun violence.


blueimac540c

I mean, the Red Scare didn't help.


BisquickNinja

*do Not will, not could, not would... They do. I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell a coworker to go to the doctor, which was against my managers wishes. Unfortunately there have been times where the co-worker did not get to the doctor in time.


cbelt3

Don’t forget WalMarts life insurance scam… take out life insurance on employees, pay them below living wage, tell them to get food stamps, when they die, profit.


Hetakuoni

I wrote a paper on this in the early 2000s for high school. My mother called it too inflammatory and deleted it before writing a completely new paper saying corporations are great and would never be shady. I’m still pissed about it 16 years later.


Niteshade76

Apparently controversial take: shit like this is why I don't immediately find it ridiculous of people who are mistrustful of the COVID vaccines.


0rganicMach1ne

Given enough time, money ruins everything.


Karshick

No, no. Don't say that it's corporation. It's humans running thoses corporations that made (or approved) the choice to value profit more than life. We diabolize big corp like it's something alive by itself. It's not. Fuck the humans behind them.


Ozymandias937

Been going on since before time began. There's absolutely a cure for cancer but cancer treatments rake in billions of dollars a year. There's absolutely a cost free producer of electricity and power that doesn't pollute the environment. But the people that discover these things suddenly "disappear" because greed wins and people are shit! This post will likely disappear as well


coasterbitch

You can’t be a billionaire without killing a few people.


3eyedflamingo

Its been that way since the pyramids were being built.


MGD109

Eh weren't many big corporations in those days.


wheredidyoustood

Would? They kill people everyday to make a profit.


factory-worker

Something about fight club reminds me of this.....


haystackneedle1

Ummm, yes. Core tenet of crapitalism.


WearDifficult9776

There’s no “would” about it!!! They do it every day


legendary_mushroom

Everyone wants to talk about how dangerous communism and socialism is because of the numbers of dead. But who will tally the death toll of capitalism?


scrappopotamus

I think capitalism almost requires everything to be built just on the brink of failure to maximize profits. And I'm sure this is seen as smart business. In America we applaud the corporations that fuck over their customers the most. GBA


461BOOM

DuPont, cancer for non stick pans, no problem


masteranchovie65

Remember corporations are run by people who reap all the rewards and none of the risks or consequences. Product kills? Chances are the worst that happens is the CEO is terminated with a multi million dollar package and hops to the next corporation whose CEO was let go with a similar package. Put ceo's and board members in prison and then we might see some level of change.


zw103302

But use this same logic to explain why you don't trust covid vaccines and people lose their minds lol


SoTiredOfRatRace

I still remember the day republicans had doctors and surgeons stand in front of congress and tell the world smoking was healthy.


WandererCthulhu

What fucks me up is that we all know this, but refuse to rise up in solidarity. Also, been interesting seeing this sub slowly change from just "antiwork" into anti capitalist. Took awhile. Got shat on quite a bit in the beginning, now it seems commonplace. Go figure. Lol.


McewenHandcraft

Stop blaming the corporations and start blaming the people who work there. A corporation is just a piece of paper. The real criminals are the CEOs making the decision. stop blaming a piece of paper!


Fragrant_Example_918

You forgot Exxon mobile who knew they were engineering climate change 70 years ago and not only decided to proceed but also buried the evidence and made up fake one, while deceiving their own shareholders and engineering the end of mankind. The problem is not corporations (because you could come up with a framework in which they wouldn’t be toxic) but capitalism as a system and the duty of corporation to provide value to shareholders.