Page 2 - Business Facts

Nestle tried to sue Ethiopia for $6 million!

Nestlé is a business that makes some of the most recognized chocolate around the world. Kit-Kat's, Smarties, Coffee Crisps, all of the delicious chocolate that is frequently given to kids on Halloween. Well, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for this extremely popular company after a lawsuit they had filed against the Ethiopian government was released to the public.

Nestlé claims that the Ethiopian government in the 1970's had withheld assets from them, causing the company to lose around $6 million. However, Nestlé later withdrew from this lawsuit after they received 40,000 letters of people expressing their anger for the company.

Ethiopia, for those of you that don't know, is one of the poorest countries in the world where it's citizens, on average, make $2 a day. The country has also been experiencing a drought for over 20 years as a result of poor levels of rainfall. Yeesh Nestlé, talk about kicking someone while they're down.

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A London Burger King sells a $200 burger!

If you're thinking of getting a delicious hamburger, you might be torn as to which restaurant to go to. You might think McDonald's Big Mac trumps the Wendy's Baconator. However, both of those burgers do not trump the $200 Burger King delicacy simply known as "The Burger".

"The Burger" has a long list of ingredients, most of which will make you drool for approximately 5 to 10 minutes. The ingredients are: Wagyu beef, white truffles, Pata Negra ham slices, Cristal onion straws, Modena balsamic vinegar, lambs lettuce, pink Himalayan rock salt, organic white wine, and shallot-infused mayonnaise all served up on an Iranian saffron and white truffle dusted bun.

That's a long list, which adds some justification to the $200 burger. Another way Burger King has justified the price is that all the proceeds from a sale of this burger, go straight to a charity in London.

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Closing down sweatshops often leads to an increase in child prostitution!

In 1997, economist Jeffrey Sachs spoke publicly about sweatshops in developing nations, and the BENEFITS of having them in the world. Sachs argued that it's not that we have too many sweatshops, it's that the world actually has too few. Sachs says that sweatshops, although have poor working conditions compared to a developed nations work conditions, provide more 'good' than they do 'bad'.

Sachs says that the jobs provided by sweatshops often have better working conditions than other jobs provided in that country. He later went on to argue that if the job wasn't an improvement from the workers previous living conditions, than they wouldn't continue to work at the factory.

Jeffrey Sachs also makes the point that children are unable to work pretty much anywhere else - but they genuinely need the money to survive. When a sweatshop closes and relocates, many children and teenagers are without an income which they so desperately need - so most of them resort to street hustling, stealing, and prostitution.

Sachs goes on to argue a variety of points including sweatshops help build the developing nations economy, and the fact that eventually, the wages will rise in these factories to the point where they are equal to minimum wage in places like America.

These arguments are extremely controversial, and you should click the source to read them in their entirety!

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Ben, from Ben & Jerry's barely has a sense of taste!

No, we’re not insulting Ben Cohen, co-founder of the ice cream company. He physically cannot taste things very well. He has a condition called anosmia, which causes a complete loss of the sense of smell.

However, because smell and taste are very highly related, he also cannot taste food very well. In fact, part of the reason why Ben & Jerry’s is so chunky is because Ben needs texture in his food to be satisfied, and the larger chunks helped him in this.

Interestingly, the reason why Ben & Jerry made ice cream is because they found it too expensive to mount their original business idea – a bagel shop. Instead, they switched to ice cream.

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The US's biggest export to China for the last 5 years has been trash!

This might sound strange, but one of the big destinations of the recycling you take out every week don’t all go to a magic recycling plant that turns them into something else. A good chunk of it is actually exported to China.

The industry is actually in crisis, despite the fact that the market for recyclables to China has doubled since 2006. This is because China has recently passed a ban on the importation of certain types of solid waste, including unwashed plastics.

The big problem seems to be in the trash sorting. Because it’s so labor intensive, the US hasn't developed good processes for sorting through trash. The Chinese are cracking down on dangerous stuff being in the piles of trash. For example, a single syringe can get an entire shipment rejected as medical waste.

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