CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY HAS BECOME A RACKET — AND A DANGEROUS ONE, notes the London Telegraph:

It allows companies to parade their virtue, and look good, while internal standards are allowed to slip. In fact, the social responsibility of companies is very simple – to make good products, to honour their contracts and to pay their staff and suppliers on time. Everything else is just a smokescreen.

It remains to be seen what happens to VW, and whether it can recover from the emissions scandal. The early signs are hardly promising. It took several days for the chief executive to be removed, and even then he was replaced by an insider – there was little sign the company had worked out it needed a clean sweep of its management. In the wake of that, there has been plenty of discussion about whether it signals the death of Germany Inc, or indeed the death of diesel. We will see. One thing it should certainly signal the death of, however, is the corporate social responsibility movement.

Volkswagen was as progressive, inclusive and caring as any multi-national is meant to be these days.

Live by the Gleichschaltung, die by it as well.