Many a company have resorted to highly unethical behaviour in order to increase their profits year on year. While this is, unfortunately, the norm, there are a few companies that take it just too far. Let's discuss these award-winningly inconsiderate cash cows who exploit the masses for an uptick in their balance sheet.
Company One: Nestle
Ah, Nestle, the biggest food company in the world. That's right. Most well known for products such as Nesquick, Nescafe, Kit-Kats, the Lion bar, Cocoa Puffs, and so much more. However, their most egregious product is their milk formula, also known as breast milk substitute.
Starting in the 1970s, Nestle and other formula companies were under fire from the UN and WHO for causing millions of infant mortalities. But how? Breast milk has been proven to contain several nutrients that have been linked with the prevention of several diseases, such as diarrhoea and malnutrition. It is also high-quality food for a developing child, as long as the mother eats healthily. Where does Nestle get inolved in this?
Nestle performed several, shall we say, unethical marketing practices in developing countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. They would pay salespeople to dress up as nurses and hand out free samples of their breast milk formula, instructing said "nurses" to spread misinformation to suggest that their product is superior to the traditional food it intends to replace (which is a complete lie, milk formula is terrible). The afforementioned samples were made to last long enough that most mothers stopped lactating, causing them to become reliant on the product. But it gets worse.
These mothers had low incomes and had to pay for expensive formula, which meant they would dilute it to save money. This would cause their children to not receive enough nutrients and die. On top of this, most mothers could not read English, which is what the instructions were printed in. As a result, they did not boil the water, which normally kills pathogens such as bacteria. This resulted in a large amount of preventable child mortality. The mothers were misinformed into taking a product they did not need and understandably misused it, causing their child to die.
The best we can say with regards to this is that we aren't actually sure how many infants died as a result.
Company Two: Apple
Apple's ability to create an illusion of customer care is nothing short of incredible. Their ability to convince the masses that they care about the environment, and your privacy, and other social issues is nothing short of applaud-able, if it weren't for the fact that it's disgustingly inhumane.
Apple have been under fire for various atrocities, mainly their supplying of "conflict minerals". Conflict minerals, in simple terms, are minerals that are mined in conflict-affected areas and lead to physical combat in order to sell these minerals. The biggest examples include tin, gold, and cobalt. The main source of these conflict minerals is the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), where tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold, and cobalt are the main minerals. Armed groups use lethal force in order to finance the extraction of these minerals, and its workers are often poorly paid, with a large amount being children. Decades of dictatorship, corruption, and high living prices has led to the accumulation of death tolls as millions are displaced from homes and thousands are killed. In fact, people would find their homes invaded by people digging up their floor to extract cobalt from the grounds of their home, without consent. The DRC's inability to enforce this has made this an incredibly tough issue to deal with, and the extent of this issue is hard to comprehend.
Apple have been accused of ignoring this issue, and do not seem to care that their suppliers are involved in this, and love to hide this under the illusion of smooth glass and polished software. iPhones may be high-quality, but so are their death tolls.
Company Three: Amazon
Amazon have been known to treat their workers "quite poorly". Their poor treatment is multi-faceted, but it is a cold and calculated strategy in order to keep the money rolling.
Low Pay
In the US, pay starts at $15 per hour, which is low for the average warehouse worker. This isn't illegal, but considering their size and employee treatment, it's not a fair wage for the workers.
Poor Conditions
There have been many reports of poor working conditions at Amazon. From employees urinating in water bottles to avoid taking breaks to extremely long hours to lack of workers' rights and their anti-union culture, Amazon are no stranger to treating employees like utter shit.
Injury Rates
Amazon has incredibly high injury rates, in fact, it is one of the highest injury rates in the USA, out of any company, beating even companies specialising in handling radioactive material.
In 2019, Amazon was fined $600,000 by OSHA for failing to provide employee training and adequate rest breaks.
In 2020, a group of ex-employees sued Amazon for firing them for taking too many breaks. The lawsuit is still pending.
Starting in 2021, Amazon was accused of firing employees for testing positive for COVID-19.
Mass Surveillance
Amazon are well known for surveilling their employees. Recently, some of their delivery drivers have started making a commotion about the fact that their actions are monitored constantly to ensure efficiency while delivering, and the extreme extent of this.
This is quite egregious, but the reason for this is actually simple. Amazon deliberately chooses to do this in order to create a cycle of employment; employees that stay for a long time become complacent. If people would work hard for 2 years and resign due to the intensity of work, it ensures a stream of people who put in high effort, reducing employee complacency. It's simple, effective, and, most importantly for this list, unethical.
Company Four: BP
BP could actually win the #1 spot, but this isn't a top 5 list. BP are the perpetrators of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the largest oil spill in history.
In 2010, Deepwater Horizon, a then 10-year-old oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, exploded, spilling 210 million US gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 2500 square miles of covered area. The oil washed up on beaches, contaminated oceans, and killed animals. Oil-slicked fish and birds cannot move due to the oil's viscosity.
In December 2012, BP plead guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter, and was fined $4.525 billion, setting two records: Biggest Oil Spill and Biggest Corporate Settlement in US History. In 2014, a US judge ruled that their actions were signs of reckless misconduct, and, in 2016, they were fined another $20.8 billion. As of 2018, this event has cost BP over $86 billion in damages, cleanup costs and other settlements.
The documentary "Deepwater Horizon", released in 2016 (which was, ironically enough, a box-office bust) covers the events in great detail and is an excellent watch if you're interested.
I don't think 86 billion dollars was enough. I think that BP should have gone bankrupt as a result of this.
The environmental damage is still being reversed to this day.
Conclusion
There are so many unethical companies, to the extent that this list could literally have 700 parts. It is easy to feel horrified and helpless with the atrocities these companies commit. It can also be easy to feel guilty for purchasing products from these companies. However, these mentioned actions, while unjustifiable, are inevitabilities, and are the result of late Capitalism. It is a suggestion that the world's foundation needs uprooting to remove the weeds that encourage this behaviour. Who knows, maybe the USSR weren't completely insane.
(Note: I intended for a 5th company, but I'm tired)
Further Reading
Poll
Which one was worst?
Nestle
Apple
Amazon
BP
This is literally the gold standard of MHT now