Can you name some companies that you genuinely hate?

@Banana Breath,

Dow Chemical? Why do they earn your ever lasting hatred?

@Banana Breath,

Monsanto is easy... I will just pick up a carbonated beverage on my way home from work. Dow is pretty easy to, I probably should buy some cleaning products.

... but how the heck am I going to give Halliburton some of my business?

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@maxdancona,

Fill up the tank.

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@engineer,

Lol. Thanks Engineer (and here I was starting to think about small countries I could invade).

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@engineer,

Quote:

Dow Chemical? Why do they earn your ever lasting hatred?

Among my issues with Dow is their mishandling of the Bhopal disaster and refusal to clean up the mess. This dates back 25 years, so here's a recap courtesy of Greenpeace:

"The Bhopal Disaster

Since 1984, 20,000 people lost their lives in Bhopal, India after a chemical gas spill from a pesticide factory. More than 40 tons of methyl isocyante (MIC) gas created a dense cloud over a resident population of more than half a million people.

People woke in their homes to fits of coughing, their lungs filling with fluid. More than 8,000 people were killed in just the first few days following the leak, mainly from cardiac and respiratory arrest.

The chemical factory responsible for this disaster belonged to Union Carbide, which negotiated a settlement with the Indian Government in 1989 for $470 million - a total of only $370 to $533 per victim - a sum too small to pay for most medical bills. In 1987, a Bhopal District Court charged Union Carbide officials, including then CEO Warren Anderson, with culpable homicide, grievous assault and other serious offences. In 1992, a warrant was issued for Anderson's arrest.

But justice has eluded the people of Bhopal for more than 20 years. Dow, since its merger with Union Carbide, refuses to assume these liabilities in India - or clean up the toxic poisons left behind.

More than 20,000 people still live in the vicinity of the factory and are exposed to toxic chemicals through groundwater and soil contamination. A whole new generation continues to get sick, from cancer and birth defects to everyday impacts of aches and pains, rashes, fevers, eruptions of boils, headaches, nausea, lack of appetite, dizziness, and constant exhaustion."

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/toxics/justice-for-bhopal/

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

... but how the heck am I going to give Halliburton some of my business?

Maybe they could interest you in a nice Halliburton suitcase.

http://image.rakuten.co.jp/footone/cabinet/pera/01719280/02957001/zt221-black-1.jpg?_ex=128x128

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@Banana Breath,

I am curious BananaBreath.

Are there any large corporations that you don't hate?

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@Banana Breath,

Banana Breath wrote:

Quote:
Dow Chemical? Why do they earn your ever lasting hatred?

Among my issues with Dow is their mishandling of the Bhopal disaster and refusal to clean up the mess.

The chemical factory responsible for this disaster belonged to Union Carbide, which negotiated a settlement with the Indian Government in 1989 for $470 million - a total of only $370 to $533 per victim - a sum too small to pay for most medical bills. In 1987, a Bhopal District Court charged Union Carbide officials, including then CEO Warren Anderson, with culpable homicide, grievous assault and other serious offences. In 1992, a warrant was issued for Anderson's arrest.

Union Carbide was the responsible company for Bhopal and they certainly deserve your wrath, but Dow bought them 17 years later after the Indian government settled the case. If India and Union Carbide settled, I don't see why you are upset with Dow. Dow has a reputation in the chemical industry as a pretty upright company these days although they made some mistakes in the 60's and 70's.

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

Are there any large corporations that you don't hate?

Max-Donkey, why on earth would you even ask such a thing? Are you so narrow-minded and paranoid that if someone says they have an issue with 3 corporations, YOU assume they have an issue with all 19,000 publicly traded companies in the USA and 100,000 publicly traded companies world-wide?

It should be obvious from the fact that I'm posting on this site that I have a computer (duh, even YOU could figure that out) and I am a fan and former shareholder of Intel which made the processor. I also admire companies like Johnson & Johnson, Amazon.com and Wells Fargo bank. They each have maintained a balance of values in producing high quality products and services, innovation, social responsibility and shareholder value, and have proven that one of these values doesn't have to be at the expense of the 0thers. And your turn: Have you ever spoken out of a body orifice other than your rectum?

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@Banana Breath,

You like Amazon, a company known for hiring workers for next to nothing and working them at a near impossible pace?

1 Reply

@engineer,

I'm with Banana Breath on the Dow Chemical issue.

Partly because of this from his earlier post

Quote:

Dow, since its merger with Union Carbide, refuses to assume these liabilities in India - or clean up the toxic poisons left behind.

It continues to dodge responsibility to this date.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/india-dow-chemical-no-show-court-hearing-over-bhopal-disaster-2014-11-12

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bhopal-30th-anniversary-dow-chemical-shareholders-attempt-force-company-face-charges-1476965

It is one of a tiny group of companies whose products I attempt to avoid.

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@ehBeth,

When Dow bought Union Carbide, all the legal issues were settled. I can see the argument that Union Carbide is a dog for playing hardball with the injured and the Indian government for turning a blind eye, but the company that bought Union Carbide years after the case was settled is not the right target IMO.

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@Banana Breath,

Jon Steward wrote:

Holy ****. [Johnson and Johnson] knowingly bribed doctors to give useless drugs to old people, the disabled and babies, You're not even allowed to do that in ‘Grand Theft Auto.'”

Banana Breath. You seem to like the companies with the best PR departments (whether they actually behave well doesn't matter, does it.)

http://www.thewrap.com/daily-show-jon-stewart-johnson-grand-theft-auto/

1 Reply

@engineer,

Quote:

Union Carbide was the responsible company for Bhopal and they certainly deserve your wrath, but Dow bought them 17 years later after the Indian government settled the case. If India and Union Carbide settled, I don't see why you are upset with Dow. Dow has a reputation in the chemical industry as a pretty upright company these days although they made some mistakes in the 60's and 70's.

Union Carbide still exists and is a subsidiary of Dow. Under American law, a company doesn't avoid responsibility for killing people and polluting the watershed merely because they merge with another company, otherwise every company could avoid responsibility for any problem by setting up a shell corporation and merging with it, which can be done online in about 15 minutes.
Thus Dow bears 100% responsibility for any remaining issues. Dow bought them 15 years after the Bhopal disaster, not 17, and knew what they were getting into, that process is called "due diligence."
For some details on the MANY crimes by Dow chemical, you should see the scholarly article published in the peer-reviewed journal "Critical Criminology" of Springer-International press.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10612-010-9117-5

The problems are many and extend through the decades. Not only are the chemicals such as Dioxin and Agent orange horrible, but Dow has many times poisoned land here and abroad with these, poisoning US and foreign citizens, and then intentionally covering them up and refusing to remediate. They also prefer to use pressure tactics against the EPA and university scholars to suppress negative reports and press rather than solve the problems they create.

Every objective organization such as the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) gives Dow, even now, the lowest possible scores as to environmental responsibility, worker safety, and corporate ethics:

Quote:

"A 2004 report from U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), identified Dow Chemical as one of twelve companies endangering the most people. Not only is Dow seen as one of the world’s major polluters and producers of harmful substances, but its reputation is overwhelmingly that of a company infamous for its denial and reluctance to pay for its damages."

Dow's Environmental grades in the US: F Abroad: F
http://www3.gmiratings.com/home/2012/11/yet-another-leak-at-dow-chemical/

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

[Johnson and Johnson] knowingly bribed doctors

Max-donkey, sorry, but it won't work. You would LOVE to try criticizing me for hating companies and/or for not hating companies, clearly you're just a curmudgeon troll who tries to stir up trouble and lacks the personal integrity and vital potency to deal with the actual questions at hand. Tsk tsk, it must suck to be you.

In any corporation as large as JNJ (and there are very few that large) there is no question that you will find problems. Bribery has been a problem throughout all of the Pharmaceutical sector in the US and abroad, you can google British pharm Glaxo's scandal with bribery in China for instance. But a big difference relative to Dow is that JNJ has paid their fines and corrected the problems, rather than trying to silence the critics or threatening NPR with cutting their funding if they report about it, as is Dow's modus operandi.

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@Banana Breath,

Banana Breath wrote:

What companies do you hate and why do you hate them?
Personally I hate Monsanto, Halliburton, and Dow Chemical...

I'm anti-corporate, but I generally subscribe to the motto "don't hate the player; hate the game" as far as individual corporations go. Maybe Monsanto is rotten to many people, but it's important to keep in mind that its actions are not the product of individual malice. Rather, companies like Monsanto are the product of several factors: (1) their economic niche; (2) the monomania about profits that drives the corporate class overall, today; (3) their ownership structure; (4 +) probably some other things I'm leaving out. For the most part I don't think it's productive to direct one's hatred toward specific corporations.

One company I do hate is Chic-fil-A. I hate their homophobic CEO. I hate the illiterate cows in their lame commercials telling me to EAT MOR CHIKIN. And I sort of just hate chicken sandwiches in general. There are no economic forces requiring them to act like idiots. It's all on them.

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The Shoreditch Leather Strap and Restraint Emporium.

They broke far too easily and the Company refused to give an apology, let alone a refund.

Ruined the whole weekend.

1 Reply

@Banana Breath,

Banana Breath wrote:

Union Carbide still exists and is a subsidiary of Dow. Under American law, a company doesn't avoid responsibility for killing people and polluting the watershed merely because they merge with another company, otherwise every company could avoid responsibility for any problem by setting up a shell corporation and merging with it, which can be done online in about 15 minutes.

But they do cease to be responsible when they come to a legal agreement and meet those terms which Union Carbide did. I can see those saying that legal agreement was woefully inadequate, but Union Carbide went to court, lost, paid out their settlement, sent their executives to jail, etc. If you genuinely hate Dow for their current actions, so be it but I don't see Bhopal as falling in Dow's accounting ledger.

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@Lordyaswas,

Quote:

The Shoreditch Leather Strap and Restraint Emporium. They broke far too easily and the Company refused to give an apology, let alone a refund. Ruined the whole weekend.

You are clearly from a different planet than I. Perhaps the Better Business Bureau can help get the redress you feel you deserve.

0 Replies

Can you name some companies that you genuinely hate?

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