J & J and VW: capitalism at its worst
Johnson & Johnson, the US drug health care giant, and Volkswagen, the world's largest car company, are poster companies for why capitalism must be regulated.
Last week it was reported how Johnson & Johnson made $12 billion marketing Risperdal to young boys; a drug they didn't need but which caused 5% of them to develop breasts...really big breasts. That $12 billion J & J earned was after paying $6 billion in fines and male big breast settlements. I thought that form of insidious capitalism would keep top honors for awhile but it only took a day for Germany's Volkswagen to top it. How? They sold fuel efficient cars to us Yankees that got really good gas mileage. Problem was they could only get high MPG but tuning the cars to pollute American air. One glitch remained: how to get by our strict pollution testing facilities. Simple, they engineered in software that detected when the polluterwagon was being tested which triggered the engine to report: "NO POLLUTION HERE MR. TESTER." VW just got caught and must fix all half million such cars attacking the ozone layer. A big fine will likely follow.
The next time you hear an extreme conservative legislator railing about getting government off the backs of business, ask them if they'd want their young son to grow grotesque breasts from taking J & J's Risperdal, or breath the foul air spewed out by their VW stink pot.
Last week it was reported how Johnson & Johnson made $12 billion marketing Risperdal to young boys; a drug they didn't need but which caused 5% of them to develop breasts...really big breasts. That $12 billion J & J earned was after paying $6 billion in fines and male big breast settlements. I thought that form of insidious capitalism would keep top honors for awhile but it only took a day for Germany's Volkswagen to top it. How? They sold fuel efficient cars to us Yankees that got really good gas mileage. Problem was they could only get high MPG but tuning the cars to pollute American air. One glitch remained: how to get by our strict pollution testing facilities. Simple, they engineered in software that detected when the polluterwagon was being tested which triggered the engine to report: "NO POLLUTION HERE MR. TESTER." VW just got caught and must fix all half million such cars attacking the ozone layer. A big fine will likely follow.
The next time you hear an extreme conservative legislator railing about getting government off the backs of business, ask them if they'd want their young son to grow grotesque breasts from taking J & J's Risperdal, or breath the foul air spewed out by their VW stink pot.
posted by Walt Zlotow at 5:01 AM
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