Ethical Issues with AMAZON

Amazon.com, is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It is considered one of the Big Four tech companies, along with Google, Apple, and Facebook.

TAX AVOIDANCE:

Taxes are important. And when the ultra wealthy aren’t paying them, they’re even more important. Taxes redistribute money in such a way that all citizens can receive the services they need.Unfortunately not paying taxes is also what corporations apparently love to do .

One serial tax avoider is Amazon. In fact it was avoiding tax that got them where they are in the first place.  Amazon was created to exploit the loophole of not having to collect sales taxes when selling online, which at the time was only a requirement for physical stores. Although in the US Amazon now does pay sales tax in every state that has one, calculations suggested that if Amazon had been paying taxes from the start it would have paid a total of $20.4 billion in sales taxes from its founding until 2015.

Other than this,Amazon paid no federal tax on $5.6 billion in U.S. profits, and in the past five years paid a rate of 11.4% on its profits of $8.2 billion, around a third of what they should pay.Amazon just gets to avoid paying more taxes.

WORKER'S EXPLOITATION:

Amazon also have factories for manufacturing with similar issues to those in their warehouses. According to the law and order each workplace can’t have more than 10% of their dispatch workers. Amazon electronics, had work forces that were illegally comprised of over 40% dispatch workers. Working conditions between dispatch and normal workers were found to be decidedly different, despite positions being the same.The investigation found that regular workers received five days of training while dispatch workers only received eight hours of training, despite the legal stipulation being 24 hours of pre-job safety training. Dispatch workers were also required to pay physical examination fees, take sick leave unpaid, receive no extra wages for overtime, receive no social insurance, and have no contributions made to their housing provident fund.

Despite these differences, all workers in the factories are subject to long hours, low wages, and poor conditions.

EVERLANE: Business with radical transparency

Everlane is an American clothing retailer that sells primarily online. The organization is headquartered in San Francisco, California and also has stores in New York City, Los Angeles, and Palo Alto.

Founded in 2010 by Michael Preysman, Everlane is boldly committed to ethical manufacturing. All of Everlane’s garments are made in factories that meet the most stringent quality standards – not only in terms of the clothes themselves, but also in how workers are treated. Everlane only partners with manufacturers that demonstrate a strong commitment to their workers’ welfare, a fact the company prides itself upon in its marketing material.

How Does Everlane Use Ethical Marketing?

What  makes this company different from other online shopping platforms is its commitment to " radical transparency", in other words, the price of every clothe and garment is broken down and shown to their customers on website.  In this way the customers can know what is the actual manufacturing cost of the clothes they are buying, on the other hand the company is winning the hearts of the public by their truthfulness.

The company’s cotton shirts, for example, costs $6.70 to produce, and you can see exactly how much each of the manufacturing and logistical elements affects the retail price:

By boldly revealing precisely how much each of its garments costs to make, Everlane can offer its customers the kind of transparency consumers want while enjoying the considerable karma this kind of radical transparency offers.

Unethical Advertisement by Coca-Cola

Unethical Advertisement by

 Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola, the world’s largest sugar-sweetened beverage maker, has knowingly diverted the unhealthy effects of sugary drinks through misinformation and false advertising. Consumption of these sugar-sweetened beverages is linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Coca-Cola’s top executives are held responsible for recruiting researchers who wanted to help Coca-Cola to avoid the image of being a problem in people’s lives and being a company that brings important and fun things to them.

The allegations against Coca-Cola include secretly funding and publically promoting biased research, working together to promote exercise over the reduction of sugary drink consumption, and running false and misleading advertising campaigns while growing scientific evidence linked its products to preventable disease.

This was one of the examples of unethical practices done by leading companies to promote there product and create a positive image of the company in the eyes of customers. But the reality is that they are just playing with the lives of the people.