Why I hate Capitalism
From a brilliant example of corporate evil (on the Dow corporate website “Yes Men’sâ€? mock Dow site. Thanks Gus, sorry everybody for the misleading.):
On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide - now part of Dow - accidentally killed thousands of residents of Bhopal, India, when its pesticide plant leaked a vast cloud of lethal gas over the city.
…
As Dow has repeatedly noted, Dow cannot and will not take responsibility for the accident. (”What we cannot and will not do… is accept responsibility for the Bhopal accident.” - CEO Michael Parker, 2002.) The Dow position has not changed, despite public pressure.
…
Dow shareholders will see NO losses, because Dow’s policy towards Bhopal HAS NOT CHANGED. Much as we at Dow may care, as human beings, about the victims of the Bhopal catastrophe, we must reiterate that Dow’s sole and unique responsibility is to its shareholders, and Dow CANNOT do anything that goes against its bottom line [i.e income] unless forced to by law.
I feel sick.
[Update, 24/12: Updated sources, struck out fabricated material.]
Comment by Justin • Fri 24 Dec 04, 5:47 am #
As I remember, India was not a capitalism haven in the 1980s. In fact it was quite the opposite.
Just because a corporation committed the crime, that does not exclude laying blame to the government protecting them with special privileges that make them immune to accepting responsibility.
Your anger should be directed at the government intervention in the economy.
Happy days.
Comment by Nato • Fri 24 Dec 04, 10:28 am #
Yeah, I’m not sure its the fault of capitalism.
But whatever is at fault, its still very sickening.
Comment by Angus • Fri 24 Dec 04, 2:17 pm #
OK, don’t go overboard! As the site notes, the BBC interview was a hoax, but dowethics.com itself is a hoax site owned by The Yes Men! They’re the notorious pranksters whose film I saw this year at the film festival, and are responsible for this and other pranks like fake GATT/WTO press releases and the gwbush.com site. A WHOIS query reveals that dowethics.com is registered to:
domain: DOWETHICS.COM
owner-address: Marylin Mircus
owner-address: 56, flowers road
owner-address: 321
owner-address: Bhopal
owner-address: India
…which doesn’t look like the Dow Chemical Company to me. Anyway, after their fake BBC interview, they sent out another press release linking to the fake dowethics.com “retraction” which was designed to further inflame the controversy with callous use of language.
So, I’m not saying that Dow/Union Carbide is blameless or anything in the matter, but double-check your sources first :).
P.S. What happened to “Comment Preview”?
Comment by Matt • Fri 24 Dec 04, 3:54 pm #
I guess I was most disturbed by the bit I bolded, where they say that their sole responsibility is to their shareholders, and therefore maximising their income. They deny any other responsibility.
Comment by Matt • Fri 24 Dec 04, 4:15 pm #
So I got PUNK’d! Post updated…
Anyway, my point was just that capitalism creates a climate where abhorrent behaviour is rewarded. I’d heard that “sole responsibility to the shareholders” line earlier this week in a different context, and was just fed up with it. Let’s have some social responsibility!
Gus: I never had comment previews. Code blind!