The Multinational Monitor has released its opinion on The Ten Worst Corporations of 2002. What do you think of these choices, and what other companies would you ad to the list?

Let's say...Exxon, ConocoPhillips, and how about Vice President Cheney's old company Haliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, said to have picked up billions of dollars in contracts building military bases around the world for U.S. forces in the "War on Terror." George H.W. Bush sits on the board of the Carlyle Group, the investment firm which also owns several defense contracting firms.

What about companies in the garment industry who use sweatshop labor in third world countries? Companies that I know of off of the top of my head: Disney, The Gap, Nike, Levi Strauss, and Adidas.

The Federal Government!

Oh wait, I guess it's not really a corporation, even though one could argue that they hurt a lot of people..

The Catholic Church!

Oh, shoot. Got me again. They're even tax exempt. Still quite a bad year, though.

Ah well. I'll just go with the biggest 3 companies and anything in which that evil President Bush was involved.

Mike

Why not. He can go through legal battles like Clinton did over Whitewater. If he's innocent like Clinton was they'll eventually have to throw out their case. Once they've wasted all of our time and money and made all kinds of nasty character attacks.

What makes Bush more special? As far as I can see he has a lot more to answer for.

Okay. Let me clarify my purpose for starting this thread before it derails into a debate about Clinton and Bush. Websites such as http://www.corpwatch.org serve a purpose of monitoring corporate activities and informing the public of those activities, so that they can make responsible choices when they purchase certain products. This particular site, in my opinion, does have a liberal bias, but it acts as a good starting point for America's Debate's own corporate watchdog thread.

If you want to put a corporation on the list, make sure that you say why you are putting on the list. Not everyone is going to agree on every company, and it's worthwhile for us to debate these issues, so if you feel that a company doesn't belong there, tell us why. Let's keep it civil, though, and remember that the main purpose of the thread is merely to inform each other of corporate activities. Then, people can make their own choices about what issues are or aren't important to them, and they can patronize companies accordingly.

I like the idea of a corporate watch group. I did see a liberal bias (selling bulldozers is a bad thing ?). I would put any corporation on the list where their top executives made substantially more than their workers. I would put on the list any corporation which gave bonuses and raises to executives when company profits fell. I would put on the list any corporation which gave bonuses to executives when jobs were cut.

With my list, how many corporations are ethical ? I really do not know.

I thought this was a little bit ridiculous, as well, considering all of the activities that bulldozers are used in. It's not like a nuke, which has one major function, and beyond a certain point, companies don't have control over how their products are being used.

Is there a government agency watchgroup?

That was Ralph Nader's claim to fame with his PIRGs. When Nader's Raiders calmed down the corporate corruption began to pick up momentum in the 1980s. Nader is no saint but he is a true descendant of the muckrakers.

Well I was going to put Ford Motor at the top because their former CEO, Jacques Nasser ran that place into the ground. Ford lost 2 billion dollars in 2001, 2002 wasn't much better. Just an example of a poorly run company. I hope they get their act together. Merril Lynch had an awful year, losing a court case and being convicted of puffing up stocks their analysts had a stake in, kind of destroys the whole investor confidence thing. Of course WorldCom, giving every nickel of profit to ex CEO's, CFO's, CEO's uncle's cousins, etc. THe coporate line about these huge bonus being neccessary to get top CEO's is b.s. What they are getting are basically embezzlers, shysters, hell I'll take the job for a fraction of what they paid Bernie Ebbers, except I won't stick the company profits in my personal checking account!!