You probably heard that Apple has to stop selling watches because it was found guilty of stealing technology that wasn’t theirs. Here is an article that lists many of Apple’s ethical issues.
Why am I sharing this? For several reasons. I believe that Apple is more ethical than other large technology companies but they are not immune to criticism. I am concerned when any company does anti-consumer things and right now Apple is doing anti-consumer things by not being ethical.
From the article above:
Our research highlights several ethical issues with Apple, including climate change, environmental reporting, habitats & resources, pollution and toxics, arms & military supply, human rights, workers' rights, supply chain management, irresponsible marketing, anti-social finance, and political activities.
We can not ignore the harm that anyone does in the world, even when they have improved things. I think now more than ever we need ethical accountability to be part of how capitalism works. For example, a department that continuously audits companies for ethical behavior since we have learned that companies can’t seem to police themselves. Deregulation doesn’t work. It is the most common thing for companies to disclaim the evil they do by saying it was a rogue employee when that employee did that because they were told to. Companies avoid accountability 99% of the time. We need to start putting the C-level in prison when they profit from illegal behavior.
This isn’t some desire for more government intervention. This is a result of the abusive practices companies have done. We clean up companies’ social experiments when they aren’t responsible. We are paying for the drug problem, and other issues in society. Those companies aren’t paying and in fact, fighting them in court. We like to talk about accountability for individuals, but when it comes to churches and businesses “they are too big to fail.” BS. No one is too big to be responsible for their actions. Anyone who believes differently has a vested financial interest.