Corporations are pathological
Wow, people are here defending corporations suggesting they "have a conscience". Other people jump in offereing various examples of said corporate conscience. If they have a conscience, it ain't no more than a marketing campaign, since it is practically ILLEGAL for corp's to put anything ahead of generating profit.
The notion that many corp's have a conscience is ofcourse, laughable.
It's like pointing out that a tobacco company (under a Court punishment coercing them to publish anti-Smoking ads) is trying to stop minors from smoking but does so out of "corporate consciense".
Absurd.
Many
corporations have a pathological relationship to society. I can site Ford's refusal to fix the Pinto explosion problem. GM made the same decision in 1973 concerning gas tank explosions:
500 fatalities x $200,000/fatality
--------------------------------------- = $2.40/automobile
41,000,000 automobiles
The cost to General Motors of ensuring that fuel tanks did not explode in crashes, estimated by the company to be $8.59 per automobile, meant the company could save $6.19 ($8.59 minus $2.40) per automobile if it allowed people to die fuel-feed fires rather than alter the design of vehicles to avoid such fires.(p.62-63)
Other examples:
The sale and distribution of tobacco. LOL @ Camel for intentionally advertsing TO CHILDREN.
The marketing of booze/tobacco on mass media.
Gov't support for the junk food industry.
Gov't support for oil speculation.
Gov't support for privatized health care.
Gov't support for de-regualation. (like teh Energy markets i.e. Enron)
It's interesting to note Kenneth Lay has moved to Florida - the only State which doesn't allow court claims against private possessions like Mr. Lay's $29 million dollar home.
I think there is a case to be made that gov'ts are increasingly putting corporate desires ahead of the Will of the People, we only need to look at Iraq to come to that conclusion.