World News

There was a great John Oliver episode about how Cigarettes are sold in African and South Asian countries. Any effort to regulate the market, like introducing warning labels, limiting tobacco ads, or even just disallowing the sale of individual cigarettes in front of schools, was immediately met with huge backlashes by big tobacco.

If your countries GDP is 5 Billion US-D and Phil Morris has a turnover of 80 Billions US-D plus the lobbying power to have the US or EU threaten sanctions against that country, it is pretty darn difficult to provide the same level of consumer protection laws.

Don't blame the countries that are on the short end of neocolonialism, when your government is complicit in it.

You could pass legislation that requires corporations not to do harmful activities in other countries if these activities are illegal in your country. If a corporation does such an activity abroad it would still be prosecuted as a crime in your country. If a corporation doesn't want to subject itself to such accountability, it would have to stop doing business in your country.

This.

Nestle products comply with European law in Europe. Nestle products comply with Senegalese law in Senegal. Nestle products comply with South African law in South Africa.

When companies use ingredients that are banned in Europe to produce food for American markets, (brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, BHA, BHT, etc), we point the finger at lax American regulators for allowing it. When Nestle produces food for African markets that doesn't meet European standards, we don't blame African regulators.

Corporations do depend on money, so every bit of money you don't give to Nestlé reduces their power just a tiny bit. Nestlé is a difficult company to boycott though, because they own so many brands.

Those poorer countries can’t

I wish I could find it but there was a palm oil company that was banned from an island and they just ignored it

Sanctions.

If America told Nestle and other corporations that if you're committing human rights abuses anywhere, you're not welcome in our markets.

It's not some impossible thing.

It's just something that isn't possible till we have politicians who represent voters more than corporations.

We need progressive majorities for that. But shit can be better

Because America is where they do a lot of shady shit....

If America threatened to cut Nestle off from the American market they would break their backs bending over for whatever we asked.

Other countries have more people, but don't spend as much money. Other countries have more money, but don't buy garbage food.

America is Nestle's ideal market, and they have large monopolies.

Democracy IS best. We arguably don't have it because capitalism is pay to play and money equals speech = the orgs and individuals with the most money have the most influence over politics and government; so much so that wealth essentially controls policy — note that despite the USA being one of the most obvious and egregious examples, the problem is not isolated in any way shape or form.

If there were hard limits on individual wealth, every business was a co-op owned by the workers, and their influence on society was properly regulated, maybe we would have much more egalitarian democracies, but individuals and orgs will always strive to corrupt the system for their own power/wealth advantage (incl under any other system e.g. socialism).