Worst Company In America: AIG VS Peanut Corporation Of America
Poisoning the economy or poisoning your customers? Decisions, decisions!
It's #1 AIG VS #17 Peanut Corporation of America:
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2009 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers, and seeded according to number of nominations. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america. Download the bracket here.
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Comments:
Hard one!
If anything, AIG is the ultimate fail. They never learn from their mistakes, apparently.
Death
or
Destruction
wow
Mine's with PCA. I hate AIG, their manipulative schemes to rake money in, their lavish post-TARP summits, their bonus blitz, etc etc, but they didn't knowingly put out food that could have (or in fact did) poison and kill a lot of unsuspecting people nationwide. I think they both need to be punished, but when you have to pick only one...
I can't think of AIG killing anyone via their product or infecting them carelessly with salmonella... just the US treasury, and that's too abstract to be one person.
This is like a fight between the death star and the borg cube
Yet another finals-worthy matchup early in the tournament!
I'm sad to see this match up so soon. This should have been in the final four, IMO...
But jeez... Intentionally endangering the lives of others for personal gain vs intentionally endangering the financial wellbeing of the planet for personal gain.
Sadly enough, I had to choose AIG. Even though Peanut Corp actually killed people and put other people at Risk, AIG (helped) kill the global economy, ruin millions of people, then on the verge of collapse, beg for handouts then flip the US the bird and start wasting everybody's money lavishly.
In short - I'm pretty sure AIG has lead to a lot more deaths than jars of spoiled peanuts...
I think there's something to be said for the fact that AIG has probably lost more money in a year than PCA will make in a life time.
Come on, Consumerist. You need to start this whole process earlier with a "seeding" thread. This is like Duke vs. North Carolina.
And I'm not so sure that AIG isn't at least indirectly responsible for someone's death/suicide/stress-related-illness.
I am going to have to flip a coin on this one. Oh crap. All my spare coins went to fund the AIG bonuses.
Oh man. How did this happen? This should be the championship round.
PCA killed people, either negligently or criminally, but at least PCA knew it was time to cease doing business.
AIG has ruined lives and businesses all over the place, and promised to make itself go away, but instead keeps demanding our monetary support, and continues to conduct its business as usual.
@xAnarChisTx: But PCA intentionally misled authorities, hid evidence, etc. So is it stupidity (AIG) vs evil (PCA)? The lawyer in me wants to say, "it depends on your definition of 'worst.'"
Destroying the entire global economy vs selling tainted products. My heart goes out to anyone effected by the nuts but AIG takes the cake here.
it's unfortunate this matchup comes so early in the competition. would have been great for the final 4.
@valsharess1: Psh. As if. Terminator isn't alive. Its a machine. The Predator just gets his neck broke from the ole T-800 model and its game over man.
@xAnarChisTx: There is no reason for them to learn from their mistakes when we slap them on the wrist and give them bonuses and bail out money. I would never learn also.
Sad but true
I have to go with PCA myself. Farking up the global economy is definitely terrible and affects us all, but the PCA people *knowingly* shipped out tainted product, even going so far as to shop around for testing labs that would approve the tainted product. That is sheer evil.
@slinky22: I suspect AIG has done the same, and will continue to do so until stopped. We don't know enough about AIG's representations to government officials, and from what I've seen of AIG's ethics so far, I'm not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on that point in a matchup with PCA.
Hmm normal, everyday evilness (PCA) vs. unprecedented financial mayhem (AIG).
There will be another evil corporation around next year or 6 months from now.
However a masterful f---up like AIG only comes around once a generation or 50 years or so. So they win just by attrition.
A company that didn't clean its factories enough and it made some people sick, or a company that cooked its books to ruin an entire world economy...
@PSN: kingpsyz: Very much so. I have gone with AIG on the grounds that one can opt not to eat peanuts, but one cannot opt out of AIG's bailout.
@hellinmyeyes:
If this was China, I guarantee a bunch of those PCA execs would have been killed for poisoning people.
I hate AIG as much as anyone else, but I agree that PCA wins it here. Knowingly allowing contaminated food to go through is just bad.
@Jessy Irwin: Well, it can be strongly argued that, without AIG blessing the CDOs, they wouldn't have gotten AAA ratings, meaning institutions couldn't buy them, resulting in the whole sub-prime fiasco being a mere hiccup.
So, as much as I hate PCA, AIG did a LOT more damage.
Easier to get over Salmonella than it is to get over a recession
@slinky22: Well, it's less the bonus sideshow than without AIG, the CDOs wouldn't have an AAA rating. And at most, the losses would have been one-tenth the size.
To the editors: I'm enjoying the WCIA contest much more this year due to the better seeding and the fact that you're moving it along at a faster pace.
FYI for next year. Monster Cables definitely needs to be on this list. They make an overpriced product--and they think they have ownership of the word Monster.
I really dislike AIG, but it's because of the peanut butter recalls that I haven't been able to enjoy peanut butter cup ice cream. Booo!!!
Wow. This is a tough one. Death quickly by tainted peanuts, or death slowly due to eroding of retirement (which means peanuts may be the one affordable food).
Vote AIG. PCA is already dead.
@PSN: kingpsyz:
As much as I dislike the AIG business, and can't "opt out" like kc2idf mentions, I have to say:
death > financial ruin
One can recover (eventually) from financial ruin, Death, on the other hand, is a little bit more persistent.
Mannnn....
Gots ta give it to th' nut. They actually killed people... AIG was just a buncha asshats...
I'm going with PCA; AIG's choices piss me off as much as the next person, but to the best of my knowledge they have never knowingly shipped food tainted with salmonella.
@Trai_Dep:
Not to mentional all the people who may have killed themselves due to the current financial situation it might have put them in. Granted I know at the heart of it, it is their own fault, still AIG should get some of the blame.
@PSN: kingpsyz: I totally agree, this matchup came way too soon in the voting. The Peanut corporation literally killed people with their poisoned product, while AIG helped kill the economy (and indirectly and potentially the suicide of some people) through their poisoned product.
Can't think of any two more deserving finalists.
Man, I feel like AIG is getting off too easy here.
@Radi0logy: Times like these show the true power of Google Fight:
Death Star : Borg Cube = 44400000 : 45000
Terminator : Predator = 7740000 : 4450000
...
Pirates : Ninjas = 8630000 : 5080000
Hmm, clearly Google Fight cannot be trusted.
Considering both are cases where the US Government had the power to prevent both from happening but was too broken and naive to do so, Id put Uncle Sam down as the real loser here.
(I know, I know, not a company..)
ok now this is a tough choice...