In response to the original question, the ethical actions and violations of many companies can be difficult to ascertain through speculation. However, as with most organizations a small amount of research can prove to be a great asset if you are willing to ask the right questions.
Direct inquires to the company should prove to be most effective. I believe there are different federal regulations requiring companies to make certain information available to you the consumer. Inquires as to what countries the companies have factories located in and as to the wages paid to the common employees should prove effective. These wages differ from country to country but can often be significantly lower than the standard of living. I would also look into their environmental policies. Groups like the Greens and other environmentally active communities tend to have lists of strong cooperate offenders and human rights organizations should prove to have similar lists associated with that form of injustice.
I think you may find that many of the stronger offenders will prove to be the hardware companies because of issues already pointed out as to the availability of programmers for software conglomerates. Also many companies in the U.S. make use of a practice known as down sizing in which they open a a factory in the U.S. and when the company becomes successful enough (through its profit, from the factor) to support a move, the company then movies it to a country where they can pay a lower wage and thus maximize profit. Through this helps cooperate profits it damages the American Economy and the American people.
I don't know how useful this statement has been to the slashdot community but my hopes are that it has been of some service. It is my personal opinion that any corporation that practices major human rights or environmental injustices is doomed to fail and thus not worthy of investment in even the lowest level of consumerism. I also find it sad that such corporations would have such harmful practices against their fellow humans for such shallow reasons.
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In response to the original question, the ethical actions and violations of many companies can be difficult to ascertain through speculation. However, as with most organizations a small amount of research can prove to be a great asset if you are willing to ask the right questions.
Direct inquires to the company should prove to be most effective. I believe there are different federal regulations requiring companies to make certain information available to you the consumer. Inquires as to what countries the companies have factories located in and as to the wages paid to the common employees should prove effective. These wages differ from country to country but can often be significantly lower than the standard of living. I would also look into their environmental policies. Groups like the Greens and other environmentally active communities tend to have lists of strong cooperate offenders and human rights organizations should prove to have similar lists associated with that form of injustice.
I think you may find that many of the stronger offenders will prove to be the hardware companies because of issues already pointed out as to the availability of programmers for software conglomerates. Also many companies in the U.S. make use of a practice known as down sizing in which they open a a factory in the U.S. and when the company becomes successful enough (through its profit, from the factor) to support a move, the company then movies it to a country where they can pay a lower wage and thus maximize profit. Through this helps cooperate profits it damages the American Economy and the American people.
I don't know how useful this statement has been to the slashdot community but my hopes are that it has been of some service. It is my personal opinion that any corporation that practices major human rights or environmental injustices is doomed to fail and thus not worthy of investment in even the lowest level of consumerism. I also find it sad that such corporations would have such harmful practices against their fellow humans for such shallow reasons.