Worst Corporate/Company Threats to Freedom and Democracy?

[Protagoras]

Maybe this exists somewhere, if so please toss me a link, but seems to me we should be compiling and maintaining such a list and some day we need to take some serious action against such companies.

Companies that don't just suck, or practice in a predatory way. No, I'm talking about Companies/Corporations that go out of their way to massive change or influence our politics, who use their wealth to undermine the rights of people, overthrow governments, and exploit the most vulnerable. These are institutions that don't just need to be watched. They ultimately need to be investigated, and disolved or broken up and many of their leaders placed on trial for crimes.

1. Halliburton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton

2. Carlyle Group (Coordination of multinational defense contracting) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_group

3. Diebold (Electronic Voting)

4. Choicepoint (Direct efforts to strip privacy rights, Florida Election tampering, National ID efforts)

5. Wal-Mart (Global efforts to undermine worker rights, massive anti-competitive efforts, exploitation)

6. Pfizer (Largest Pharmaco, 3rd world testing, withholding AIDs drugs, profiteering, corrupting FDA process, etc.)

7. Fox (Rupert Murdock's propaganda mill)

8. GE (media consolidation AND defense contracting WHEEE!)

9. Big Telco (Verison/ATT/Comcast not sure who's worst yet)

10. Exxon Mobil (9+ Billion dollar/Quarter profits during an apparent Crisis?)

This is just a first stab. Happy to let it take on an organic life of its own so please link up any info you have or any other suggestions you think might replace one of the above.

I am hard pressed for a solid order to these 10 but I do feel that Halliburton deserves a place at the top simply due to it's direct connection with the Neocons and the massive influence it holds over our administrative decisions (being Cheney's play company). Without Halliburton one wonders how different our efforts in Iraq would have been. It's even possible without Halliburton urging Cheney to make a billion we might not even have Iraq. 14 permanent bases going up. The N.O. Reconstruction fiasco...it seems like Halliburton has its tendrils in everything and makes everything it touches much much worse.

[peacetheonlyway]

1. Great LIST, might I add a few of my other favorite bad guys?

let's add those that are partnered with Carlyle:
11. Bearing Point (for screwing up Hawaiian Telcom's billing system so bad, it will take years to fix again)
12. SAIC (for putting the satellite chips in Diebold machines to allow one remote hacker manipulate from the comfort of his living room)

let's not forget in the Telco category, the recent wiretap fool Verizon and SBC who is the new telco monopoly

from legal perspective, we have to ding our friends at
13. Greenberg Traurig (for giving us Abramoff)

on the banks level, where do I start, which banks don't belong on the list:

14. Citibank
15. Rothschild

any company with the phrases:
16. Bin Laden Saudi anywhere in its title


gosh I have to research some more.. but this is fun. great project!
great post.. let's us all know who we should see as a threat to our very safety!!!

[abluelady]

2. Glad You Brought This Up

Had a conversation the other day with a couple who believe welfare fraud hurts them more than anything else. I brought up corporate welfare and corporate fraud, i.e, Ken Lay, Jeffrey Schilling, et al. Their eyes glazed over at that point.

I don't know if I'm correct, but it seems to me that type of fraud and welfare hurts our country as a whole more than the welfare queens! I'm looking forward to the responses to your thread. I'm not as articulate as I would like to be--my emotions cloud my discussion so some cold, hard facts are welcome.

[Protagoras]

4. Enron certainly would have been on this list

Probably still should be. And Arthur Anderson (under their new name?) but I was trying to limit myself to the top 10.

Would be great to index these cos against corporate welfare and tax breaks received. I'm hoping some of our real knowledgable wonks can contribute some serious info/links as well.

[Greyhound]

3. Worst offender of all and the main source for those on your list

The U.S. Department of Defense.

Annual Budget of ~$400 billion which doesn't include the additional billions it is spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The unspoken statistic, according to 1998 UN Development Program estimates;
$9 Billion Clean water and sanitation planet-wide
$12 Billion reproductive health-care
$13 Billion adequate diet and general health-care
$6 Billion universal education

IOW, for less than 10% of what we are currently spending to "protect" ourselves, we could virtually eliminate the need for our global war machine.

And how much is this costing us? 100's of billions? Trillions? :silly:

[Protagoras]

7. I agree the Pentagon is the center of most of the

problem I still consider it part of the government that responds to the bribes and corruption caused by these corporations. Remove their monopolistic and lobbying power and the pentagon changes.

The Pentagon I see as a giant, brainless, sucking black hole...it'll take whatever is fed it. It's the corporations that are standing there intentionally throwing the red meat. imho.

The real scary part of the pentagon budget is the 400+B it gets is only about half of what it actually spends each year...the rest is wrapped or hidden under administration funds.

[CrispyQ]

5. edit -- sorry, misreaad OP. --nt

[Fridays Child]

6. K Street and the corporate media are taking this country down.

K Street corrupts the legislative process, allowing profiteers from every industry to amass ever greater proportions of our collective work product. This isn't trickle down economics or even trickle up economics. It's an upward turned spigot blasting our hard earned dollars directly into their pockets. And the corporate media's role is to keep us misinformed and distracted while we're being robbed.

When do we wake up? When bank balances drop and wallets thin down. Look at what's happening: gas prices go up and Bush's approval rating drops. This is why they're ramping up the "economic good news" spin machines so furiously, right now. But words won't fill a gas tank or buy health insurance or put food on the table.

And they know this but they have absolutely no intention of letting the plunder come to an end. So, before we are fully awakened from our complacent slumber, they plan to destroy our democracy and replace it with fascism.

Frank Zappa said it best: "The illusion of freedom in America will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."

I don't think there's much time left, at all, before that scenery gets taken down and the curtains pulled back.

[gilpo]

8. Don't forget ClearChannel

Keepin' the sheeple stoopid