Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates' net wealth -- $51 billion -- is greater than the combined net worth of the poorest 40 percent of Americans (106 million people).
me: i hate bill, for making some crap like win9x, and i don't use it, but if people are dumb enuf to buy his software, then he deserves the money. live the geek alone.
Hundreds of hospitals are "dumping" patients who can't afford to pay.
me: as they should. if i go to the store and get a bunch of food, but can't pay for it should they let me have it regardless?
The feds are criminally prosecuting big tobacco companies for smuggling cigarettes into Canada. (Never mind addicting young kids to smoke and thus condemning them to a certain, albeit, slow, death -- can't criminally prosecute them for that.)
me: smoking is a choice, get over it. let the kids & the canadians smoke all they want.
There's a bull market in stock fraud.
me: what? so? who cares?
Prescription drugs may cause 100,000 deaths a year.
me: while the FDA keeps drugs that might work better off the market.
Two Fox-TV reporters in Florida are fired for trying to report on adverse health effects associated with genetically engineered foods.
me: well, ya know, part of having a job is the risk of getting fired. i'm writing this response at work right now. i might get fired also. they need to get over it.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposes that genetically engineered foods be labelled "organic."
me: if it is genetically engineered, then it is organic. organic means that no pesticides or fertilizers are used. get a dictionary moron.
Coal companies continue to cheat on air quality tests as hundreds of coal miners continue to die each year from black lung disease.
me: yea, they do. all the more reason for nuclear powere. they there would be no need to mine coal. i'm all for it.
The North American Securities Administrators Association estimates that Americans lose about $1 million a hour to securities fraud.
me: so? the people who lose this money must have more money than they know what to do with. besides, dumb people exist to be taken advantage of by smart people. what is the problem?
Robert Reich says that megamergers threaten democracy. Corporate crime explodes, but the academic study of corporate crime vanishes.
me: reich is an idiot. how about the crime of corporate welfare? "academic study" is an oxymoron.
Three hundred trade unionists around the world were killed in 1997 for defending their rights.
me: so what. waco. ruby ridge. DEA drug bust gone wrong. lots of people are killed for defending their rights, here in america. what happens in other countries is not your concern.
Corporate firms lobbying to cripple the Superfund law outnumber environmental groups seeking to defend it by 30 to one.
me: good. the superfund was a waste of money and effort. most of the superfund sites are still polluted.
Down on Nike? Chinese political prisoners allegedly make Adidas products.
me: AT&T uses american prisoners to answer their phones. don't by adidas or nike. that's what i do about it.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Illinois is a corporate criminal. Chemical companies are testing pesticides on human beings.
me: the government tested LSD and radiation on american soldiers. the government let black me die of sypholus (i am sure i spelled that wrong) to see what would happen. if it's ok for the government, why not for BC/BS?
Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, questions whether the Pentagon's financial controls have suffered a "complete and utter breakdown."
me: the whole government has suffered a breakdown. besides, who the hell is grassley & why do i care what he says?
Environmental crimes prosecution are down sharply under Clinton/Gore. Bush/Quayle had a better record.
me: why is this a bad thing?
Bell Atlantic buys Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are illustrations to sell telephone products.
me: get over it loser. people like you created the materialistic freezy we exist in.
Companies that have workers die on the job continue to be met with fines. Criminal prosecutions still rare.
me: here's a great generalized statement that really makes no sense if you think about it. why is the companies fault if someone dies, and not that individuals?
This is the price we pay for living in Corporate America. Wealth disparity, megamergers and the resulting consolidation of corporate power, commercialism run amok, rampant corporate crime, death without justice, pollution, cancer and an unrelenting attack on democracy.
me: i thought all of these things were caused by video games...
The 1998 market run-up might make plugged-in America feel good about itself, but big business is eating out the democratic foundation of the country, and when the empty shell crumbles, what kind of chaos might we anticipate?
me: who cares about the "market". i don't. people like you are the only ones who attach importance to it.
If you have justice on your mind, herewith for the tenth consecutive year is Multinational Monitor's effort to pinpoint those responsible. It is, admittedly, a short list -- the Ten Worst Corporations of 1998. But it is a representative list, and as the damage becomes more apparent, as the outrage at, and contempt for, our fearless leaders grows, surely the list, too, will grow.
The Ten Worst Corporations of 1998 are:
* Chevron, for continuing to do business with a brutal dictatorship in Nigeria and for alleged complicity in the killing of civilian protesters.
me: unlike the american government, which never kills civilians. that is sarcasim by the way. chevron also has those dumb-ass "people do" comercials. that's why i hate 'em.
* Coca-Cola, for hooking America's kids on sugar and soda water. Today, teenage boys and girls drink twice as much soda pop as milk, whereas 20 years ago they drank nearly twice as much milk as soda.
me: just like with smoking, it's not the kids fault they drink carbonated sugar water, it's the fault of the company. get a grip. the existance of the product does not force people to use it.
* General Motors, for becoming an integral part of the Nazi war machine, and then years later, when documented proof emerges, denying it.
me: you expected them to admit to it?
* Loral and its chief executive Bernard Schwartz, for dumping $2.2 million into Clinton/Gore and Democratic Party coffers. The Clinton administration responded by approving a human rights waiver to clear the way for technology transfers to China.
me: ahhh... bill & china. throw monica in & we could have a 3 way.
* Mobil, for supporting the Indonesian military in crushing an indigenous uprising in Aceh province and allegedly allowing the military to use company machinery to dig mass graves.
me: you mean we have finally gotten over the Valdez oil spill & found a new reason to hate mobil?
* Monsanto, for introducing genetically engineered foods into the foodstream without adequate safety testing and without labeling, thus exposing consumers to unknown risks.
me: what do you call adequate? and what is wrong with their labeling?
* Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, for pleading guilty to felony crimes for dumping oil in the Atlantic Ocean and then lying to the Coast Guard about it.
me: again... you expect them to confess? of course they are going to lie.
* Unocal, for engaging in numerous acts of pollution and law violations, to such a degree that citizens in California petitioned the state's attorney general to revoke the company's charter.
me: who cares about california. make the whole state into a toxic waste dump.
* Wal-Mart, for crushing small town America, for paying low, low wages (a huge percentage of Wal-Mart workers are eligible for food stamps), for using Asian child labor and for homogenizing the population; and last, but not least,
me: it's hard to argue with this one, but don't we all love to shop there.....
* Warner-Lambert, for marketing a hazardous diabetes drug, Rezulin, which has been linked to at least 33 deaths due to liver injuries.
me: actually, i can't really argue with this one either. some of the links are tenuous, but still, we need further investigation.
As the millennium approaches, keep your eyes open for nasty corporate predators in your neck of the woods. Keep a list. Check it twice. Then send along your nominations for the Ten Worst Corporations of 1999.
Happy New Year.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational Monitor.
(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
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