Do you know how much harm an evil company can cause?
In a world where corporate influence has the power to shape nearly every aspect of our lives, evil corporations do that and so much more, ignoring morality, social responsibility, ethics, and sometimes laws.
We’re not just talking about corporate greed; we’re talking about real companies that are the epitome of evil, companies that have taken the customer’s trust—the trust of us all—and thoroughly manipulated it with perfect PR and cold-hearted disregard.
In this article, we’re talking about a short trip through the dark underbelly of the business world, where rules and even laws can be broken without any trace of remorse. From blatant exploitation and deceptive business practices to widespread disregard for human rights and environmental devastation, these evil corporations have earned their place in the annals of infamy.
The worst part? You’ve most likely bought something from them in the past few weeks, as most of us have done.
1. Various pharmaceutical companies
In 2009, high concentrations of over 21 pharmaceutical drugs were discovered in the water near Patancheru, India. It turned out that these drugs were being dumped in the stream by various factories in the region, most of them owned by US pharmaceutical companies. We were talking about the town’s only water source, providing everything from a place to bathe to drinking water.
Pharmaceutical waste like this has been found in the US as well, and it’s estimated that around 46 million Americans’ tap water contains traces of these drugs in varying concentrations.
How evil is this? Aside from its devastating effect on wildlife, we don’t really know the exact effect small quantities of combined drugs will have on people. But one thing is certain: It can’t be that good.
2. Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is a mining company headquartered in Africa. As the biggest private mining company in the world, they provide much of the globe’s raw aluminum and copper—along with gold, uranium, and diamonds—and might have the most terrible track record for human rights violations ever.
In the 1970s, Rio Tinto was discovered to have been operating illegal uranium mines in Namibia and using the huge profits to support the apartheid government in South Africa. It turned out that the government was very aware of that.
Moreover, the company maintained its private mercenary army to keep blacks from revolting against them and the government. But that’s not all; the uranium mines also used brutal slave labor.
3. Bayer
You may know Bayer as the maker of Aspirin. They are one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world. In 1984, they found that one of the products they were selling—a medication to induce blood clotting—was infecting people with HIV.
Like any responsible company, Bayer stopped marketing it and came up with a safer alternative—right before exporting all of the contaminated medicine to Latin America and Asia, where it continued to be sold.
Moreover, they even kept making the HIV-infected drug for another several months because it was cheaper to produce than the new substitute—this was again sold straight to developing countries.
About 6,000 people in the US were discovered to have AIDS and HIV from the medicine—but how many died from the contaminated medicine overseas? According to some reports, at least 100,000 units of the medicine made their way to Argentina and Asia after Bayer stopped selling it in America.
4. Siemens
Siemens is an electronics manufacturer that makes everything from vacuum cleaners to car parts—and, in times past, Nazi gas chambers. If you were ever curious about who was willing to be up for the job of building the group-sized hydrogen cyanide chambers that were used in Auschwitz, now you know.
Siemens was also immersed in creating the infamous train system of Nazi-era Germany, the Reichsbahn, which was known for transporting Jews to the concentration camps.
But there’s more; the company also funded the Nazi Party during the 1930s and actively endorsed Hitler’s regime once the war started.
That’s old news, though. Nowadays, Siemens has moved on to more modern strategies like bribing government officials, spearheading a worldwide electronics cartel, and bribing the entire country of Greece.
5. Smithfield Foods
Smithfield Foods is a pig slaughterhouse, and while this might not be considered an evil thing by those who eat bacon and pork, what this company does affects all of us.
They package around 6 billion pounds of pork annually, which means the company needs a lot of pigs. A lot of pigs automatically produce a lot of waste—about 26 million pounds per year as far as Smithfield is concerned, according to a study.
Not to mention that the pigs are raised in barns that house thousands of tightly packed hogs. The barns’ floors have slits that enable waste to fall through a network of pipes that takes it to huge open-air holding ponds.
But it gets even worse; the pigs are injected with a concoction of antibiotics, sprayed with insecticides and chemicals that all wind up in the holding ponds.
So how does Smithfield Foods dispose of pounds of liquid, chemical-infused pig waste? They simply spray it into the air so that it floats off their property and becomes someone else’s problem.
A massive someone else’s problem filled with ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, and over a hundred other toxic compounds has given people in the surrounding areas conditions like asthma, bronchitis, and neurological damage.
If you liked our article on the companies that are a lot more evil than meets the eye, you may also want to read 7 Most Violent Small Towns in America.
