Originally published September 24 2015
Evil globalist corporations are alive and well: Volkswagen, Apple, Google and Big Pharma
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) You might have heard in recent days that the U.S. government is targeting Volkswagen after the company was caught cheating on U.S. air pollution tests. This targeting is likely to become very expensive for the Nazi-era German car maker.
According to CNBC, the company has admitted that engineers at VW installed sophisticated software known in the industry as "defeat devices" in the electronic control module of vehicles with diesel engines between 2008 and 2015.
The software was designed to sense when an emissions test was being conducted on the vehicle based on the position of the steering wheel, the vehicle's speed, the duration of the engine's operation and barometric pressure. When the software sensed these inputs, it activated a sort of "test mode" when the front wheels of the vehicle were on a dynamometer. That allowed emissions controls to run as expected during the official test; while on the road, however, the vehicles emitted as much as 10 to 40 times the legal amount.
The Environmental Protection Agency raised the issue with Volkswagen after independent researchers questioned the emissions.
Even though VW chiefs reacted quickly to the news, apologizing for the irregularities and pledging cooperation, the Obama EPA is set to impose heavy fines on VW of as much as $37,500 per diesel vehicle sold in the U.S. since 2008. That's 482,000 vehicles, which could mean a penalty of up to $18 billion, CNBC reported.
So far, the EPA has not forced VW to issue a total recall, but the agency is expected to make such a move in the future. Lawsuits are also expected.
Apple's guilt
VW is far from the only corporate offender. The popular iPhone, made by Apple, is essentially constructed in China under what amounts to slave labor conditions.
Agence France-Presse reports that a labor rights group issued a report recently accusing Chinese suppliers of the world's top smartphone maker of exploiting factory workers.
Agence France-Presse stated:
Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) say Lens Technology, which makes touchscreen glass, used forced overtime, withheld wages and risked workers' health after a months-long investigation into three of its factories.
Company founder Zhou Qunfei, herself a former factory worker, became China's richest woman after Lens Technology's debut on the Shenzhen stock exchange in March.
With the iPhone 6 debuting in recent weeks around the world, SACOM called on tech giant Apple to "apply immediate measures to rectify exploitations in its supply chain," according to AFP.
"We urge Apple Inc. to fulfill its corporate responsibility... to give workers a workplace with dignity and respect," a statement said.
Included in the group's list of charges are allegations that employees were forced to work a month at a time without a day off, their wages were withheld, and the company failed to make the required social security contributions.
"Dust, noise, polluted water and chemical substances are common problems on the shop floor," the group added, with management "ignoring if workers were well-protected."
Google and Big Pharma
Then, of course, there is Google. As we reported in August 2012, Google has been accused of intentionally blocking ads related to wholesome vitamins and alternative medical products and treatments. Over that summer, Google users who were shopping for common health products such as "vitamin C" and "fish oil" began reporting that they were getting zero search results in return, whereas before they would get scores of returns for such products.
When asked about the dwindling results, the company's public relations team often gave vague or incomplete answers; the products were still turning up in general searches but not in Google Shopping.
Big Pharma is also guilty of scamming the general public and earning billions in profits while pushing faulty products, often with a complicit government.
As reported by the Alliance for Natural Health, Hunter Lewis exposes "the incestuous relationship between government and the drug industry" in his book, Crony Capitalism in America 2008—2012.
Sources include:
CNBC.com
News.Yahoo.com
Spiegel.de
NaturalNews.com
ANH-USA.org
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