Hypocrisy--Thou Art a Jewel

For Corporate Social Hypocrisy, See Unilever’s CEO

A multinational boss fancies himself King of the World.

By Deroy Murdock
National Review Online


Polman is CEO of Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer-products multinational. Managing a corporation that operates in 100 countries, markets 400 different brands, employs 169,000 people, and grossed $56 billion in 2016 should be enough to keep Polman at his desk. But this Dutchman has had his mind on far bigger things since he took the helm in 2009.

“I am really more interested in development,” Polman declared in February.

Polman co-authored a 2014 essay in which he announced that capitalism has “proved dysfunctional in important ways. It often encourages shortsightedness, contributes to wide disparities between the rich and the poor, and tolerates the reckless treatment of environmental capital.”

Polman has directed his employees to avoid a singular focus on ROI [Return on Investment] and instead implement USLP: Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan. Its latest annual report trumpets the slogan: “making sustainable living commonplace.”

CEOs need not aspire to be Gordon Gekko. But they need not strive to be Mahatma Gandhi, either. Polman fancies himself as the latter. “As CEO of Unilever, my personal mission is to galvanize the company to be an effective force for good.”  The liberal media love Polman’s shift from generating black ink to pursuing a crunchy, green Weltanschauung.

Corporate Folly

Self-Righteous Hubris

A free society allows people to do stupid things.  A price of freedom is its tolerance of folly, ignorance, stupidity, and sin.  Moreover, a free society is one which permits many to descend into Hades via their own path.  But, it is far far better to accept this as a price of freedom than force a "moral purity" or a particular version of truth upon others.

In the West it has become not unusual to see corporates and businesses brand themselves in the market place as being "values based".  This is believed to be part of what it means to be a "good corporate citizen" rather than a rapacious capitalist.  But it can rapidly develop into a double edged sword.  Almost inevitably it extends in some cases to businesses getting involved in political debates of the day.  In other words, the business becomes a front for a particular set of values associated with a particular cluster of political parties--whether left or right.

As a shareholder, this would be is disturbing.

Letter From the UK (About Chained Trade)

TTIP is About Giant Corporates Dominating Our Economies

By Nigel Farage MEP 
1 Jun 2015
BreitbartLondon

In over 16 years as an MEP, I’ve never seen such a vast amount of emails, correspondence, even members of the public phoning my office in Strasbourg as I have recently over the issue of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Partly this is because e-mail wasn’t anywhere near as popular 16 years ago, but the reality is that this is the first big crack in the European Union’s corporatist agenda.  It marks really the first time that I have seen large numbers of people questioning the EU’s mantra that big is good and that business, jobs and prosperity flow from all the actions of the Union.

For years I’ve wondered: just how can the Left support all of this corporatist stuff? Why are trades unions and the TUC saying nothing?  Well actually, full congratulations to campaigning group 38 Degrees, who have really highlighted the fact that TTIP is potentially very significant. I even received a nice letter from Francis O’Grady, the TUC’s General Secretary, regarding TTIP’s dispute mechanism. . . . 

I’ve always been in favour of free trade, free markets and a form of competitive capitalism. But I find myself deeply alarmed by TTIP.