Do you think the examples presented are harmful? If so, should they be classified as criminal... and, if so, who should be held responsible?
Why do we tolerate the behaviors of corporations? Would you support a category of crime 'corporate manslaughter"? Would this make a difference to how corporations operate?
please leave any general feedback on the reading and documentary.
Alex
14 comments:
Although some of the treatments or behaviors I saw or that I hear about are not necessarily harmful physically(but some are, I find the question semi difficult to answer. Yes, it is horrible that these people are starving and working for a joke of a wage while the corporation is making a ton of money off thier labor. But at the same time, there are people here in America that need work and are starving themselves, but the greedy companies want to hire people from other countries because they WILL work for maybe a buck or less an hour while the Americans have a voice to demand what is a fair wage.Dell is famous for this too, you call the support desk and you are speakinfto someone from India that can barely speak or understand english. I think these companies should be held responsible, but honestly, I dont think they care if something happens, because like the documentary stated, if they make 10 mil but get fined 1 mil than who cares? I know people try to boycott certain companies and products, I have found myself trying to also, but I think it is almost virtually impossible, there are too many corporations and even if 50,000 people boycotted all of them, there are still people that will be buying these products and such, so I honestly dont know what can or could be done. I wish they could fine the companies huge amounts ofmoney and give it to the people working for slave wages and people here in the US that need work and money themselves, but we dont live in a perfect world and never will.
I think the problem with corporations is they have come to think they are above the lawa and can b/s their way out of any situation. I think that is a corporation is going to be seen as a person they should be taxed like one. The problem is the people these corporations are hireing and hurting are the same ones who benifit the most from government money. if corporations are taxed appropreatly then they would be less of a harm to society. The punishment for corporate crime should be raised as well. if you shut down a company for a couple weeks as well as fining them the corporations would suffer much more.
Big corporations make lots and lots of money because they bring in so much profit and pay minimum wages in order to produce those goods. Everyone knows this is going on but no one is going to try to change it or make a difference because it would be way to hard. Corporations like best buy and wal mart are a monopoly because so many people shop there that it would be close to impossible to put them out of business. People depend on those businesses for their goods and even though they may realize what is going on behind the scenes it still doesn't stop them from giving them their business. Its going to take a lot to make a difference for the people in other countries doing their dirty work and quite honestly i dont see it ever happening certainly not in the near future. Fining companies is only a minor set back to them and is the equivalent of pocket change.
I believe that the examples presented can be represented as both harmful and not harmful. It ultimately is horrible what these corporations have done in terms of the wages paid for the amount of hours worked. However, an example was made that when people in China see that a Nike factory has come into their country, they are blessed. These people can now go to work and made the money necessary to feed their families. It also can be noted that these harms can be classified as criminal acts. Who is to blame? I believe it to be not only the corporations but our own government as well. Strictly enforced laws and regulations need to be implicated. I believe that we tolerate the behaviors of corporations because as a society we feel that they do more positives than negatives. I would support a category of crime 'corporate manslaughter', however the problem with this is that corporations would pay off the fine or fines associated with the crime and continue on their way. Corporations make so much money, that the benefits outweigh the costs.
I do think that the examples presented are definitely harmful. With all of the aspects the documentary touched regarding what/whom these corporations negatively, the only thing you can really ask is, is there anything left untouched by these corporations? This documentary gave us examples of how they effect its workers, human health, animals, the biosphere, and the consumers. It seems like there is no aspect of life is hasn't harmed because if it hasn't affected on person directly, it harms the biosphere which is what all humans need to survive. I do believe that most, if not all of these activities should be classified as criminal. The example that sticks out to me the most is the man who made the reference as to what the difference is if I kill you with a gun or if I kill you with some chemical. The only difference is the time it takes for a person to die. By infecting you with some chemical that causes cancer, these corporations are murdering people. I know it is not really practical to say that all of the people involved in these corporations should be put in jail for all these acts because as long as there are consumers, they will continue to do these things and people are probably not willing to give up the convenience of the products. This is the reason people tolerate these behaviors because in the end, if these behaviors weren't going on, they wouldn't have access to the end products or services.
I do think that they are harmful and much stricter punishments and regulations should be put in place to prevent these cruelties from occurring. It seems rather obvious who should be held responsible, it is the corporations that knowingly allow these things to go on. Even if the lower ranks in the company tried to prevent these things they would not be able to sway the company either way.
I think people feel helpless and that is why they do not stand up for what they believe. I wish that I could change the world, but who is going to listen to a 21 year old who has no influence in the government or a major corporation. I also think that a lack of knowledge has a lot to do with it. Too many people just ignore what is going on, not wanting to get involved. If more people payed attention and made a stand together they may make a difference but as an individual you feel helpless.
I think that there should be a category of corporate manslaughter. I think that the corporations are seen as too important to our society and therefore are given exceptions from the rules in many instances that they should not. I think that if the government kept a much tighter leash on the corporations it would make a huge difference.
It is just so unbelievable what goes on in the corporations and how they are able to get away with so much. I think that it would change a lot to create a corporate manslaughter category but that may not even be enough because so much of the environment is hurt by these corporations and they see the profits as more important than anything else. Which is ashame that people think so greedily. It is just so hard to believe that these atrocities go on so it is so easy to shrug it off and pretend it doesn't happen.
I do believe that many of the examples presented are harmful. Things like pollution and poor working conditions can lead to death. How is that not murder? Corporations have done a great job of making this type of murder unnoticed and even accepted by society. Because of their influence and power, they are able to keep stories under wraps, especially since huge corporations are the ones who own the public media. In some cases, companies are fully aware of what they are doing, and will even continue to violate the law if paying the fine costs less than stopping the violation. This is true in many cases involving pollution. Even thought the company may be devastating the environment around them, they may not change their ways because paying the fine is cheaper than building a greener facility. In my opinion, I feel like the government needs to instill stricter regulations on corporations. When people die because of something a corporation knowingly did, the corporation needs to be formally charged with manslaughter. If it is impossible to convict an individual with this, then the company should be charged a fine that they would be unable to pay, or they should be shut down. With this, companies would be more careful to not violate regulations in fear of the law. Currently, companies are disregarding regulations because they are not nearly significant enough to damage them. Rules need to change in order for change to happen. Corporations will continue to kill and pollute as long as it is cheaper than changing their ways.
Many corporations have raped poor countries for resources and cost advantages. Is this a terrible thing? Yes. Should this behavior be punished as a criminal act? No. The CEO's of big business have obligations to more than just their morals. The amount of stakeholders involved in business decisions is huge, and it is impossible to satisfy everybody at once. The reason NIKE pays its workers terribly low wages is to reduce costs. These expense cutting practices ultimately lead to lower prices and more sales. If Nike doesn't cut costs, its products will be slightly more expensive than ADIDAS and consumers will purchase the latter. It is the capitalistic nature of our country that drives corporations to do these things. Our ever-increasing consumption has inadvertently created a system where these acts are not only the norm, but are necessary to compete. With agreements in place like NAFTA this behavior is poised to continue into the future. We need to not just outsource our businesses, but our set of ethical corporate values as well. NAFTA looks like it will be amended after the November elections, with these types of issues addressed. Awesome.
As for the rest of the film, they make many valid and shocking points. A devil's advocate could have a field day pointing out omitted or new information to put a new spin on it. For instance, first they paint a picture that workers have absolutely zero power in changing their working conditions and pay rate. Two minutes later they say that companies move to new poor countries because wages are too high in the host country and the workers are no longer desperate. I am not advocating the disgusting lack of respect paid to these foreigners, but people need to do some research before pointing the finger away from themselves.
I do believe that we tend to overlook the poorer working conditions in other countries not so much because we don't know they exist, but more because we just don't want to think about it. It is much easier to rationalize, like it seems big buisnesses do that we are in some way helping these people. Now while that may be true to a very small percent, i do not think it is enough to overlook the immense profits these companies are making off pennies a day labor. I also feel that because coorperations do have such a large structure of people running them that it is not always right to point the finger directly at the CEO's themselves. While i do believe that they have a large sway in what goes on i do not think that it is possible for them to satisfy everyone at once, Their first job is to make money for the shareholders, not the poor workers in third world countries. However in order to stop this criminal "organization" i think we need to start punishing the people higher up. Statr with the top and make the men ad women who benefit most from the profits pay for their mistakes. by fining the coorperation itself we just simply give these people excuses to pay workers less and illegally dump pollution so as to maximise potential profite. Even though the punishment starts at the top, it invariably trickles down through the system to pool at the lowest level an those are the people who suffer from it in the end.
I see these examples as harmful. It's horrible that these corporations get away with paying their laborers hardly anything. And no matter what anyone does they are going to keep paying them crappy wages because they have the money to get away with it. They may get fined if they are caught but that doesn't matter to them. What does it matter if they make billions of dollars and get fined a million? It barely touches them. And then there is the harm of people around their pollution. Dumping their toxics in water and etc. And again will they be stopped...no. They have too much money and power to let little fines get in their way. Ya they can be classified as being criminal but no one is going to charge them more than a fine. And the people responsible for all of this are the ones at the top of the company who are allowing this to go on. We tolerate these behaviors because they have power over us. We are the consumers, we buy their products. Corporations know that their consumers won't ever go against them because not only are they criminals but so are we for supporting it by buying the products.
I think that the acts of these companies are harmful. It is of course criminal to treat your workers so poorly. It is harmful to have children working in a factory. The wages are unfair for the profit that the companies are gaining for their work. I don't know how you would be able to stop the companies from doing this. It seems like pretty much all of the companies that we purchase our goods from use cheap labor. I don't know how the government could regulate it without jacking up prices for the consumer. These companies make everything we consume from clothing to electronics. How do we regulate things that happen over seas without hurting everyone involved? It would be nice to criminalize the actions of the companies and to have them obey the laws, but how do we.
Sweat shops are a horrible thing. I think they should be illegal. I'm sure they are not harmful to the outsider looking in, but who can support a family making pennies a day? I think the corporations entering these underprivileged should be held responsible.
I think we have to tolerate the behaviors of corporations, because they are so powerful in the United States. They hold a lot of power through different bills they managed to get passed. I would support the category of "corporate manslaughter". I'm not so sure if it would make a difference or not, seems how the big whigs of corporations serve a petty amount of jail time compared to someone not high up in power who commits the same crime.
Its hard to believe that big corporations can hold such power compared to the every day individual. They are not the government, yet they have just as much power to do the unthinkable and we still buy their products, because lets face it what else do we have?
I do believe that the acts of these corporations are harmful. I think they are most harmful to the workers who are making the products to be sold. Such young children should no be doing such manual labor. And on top of that the wages that the workers get is not nearly enough money for a family to live on. The corporations try to find the cheapest labor possible so they can maximize their profit.
i think that the acts of corporations are very harmful. it is disgusting how huge corporations like nike takes advantage of less developed countries and their citizens. they treat their employees badly, pay them terrible wages and expect them to work ridiculous hours. these behaviors are dangerous to all involved. it is dangerous to the country the factory resides because of pollution, the employees because they work in unsafe conditions, to the owners because they are responsible for these circumstances, and for the united states and other countries that support and purchase these brand. that is because money, business and jobs are no longer within the us and other developed nations.
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