Full disclosure: I love my OM-D now, and have been carrying an Olympus (on and off) since I was shooting Kodachrome and Tri-X. I'm planning to upgrade as soon as they announce the new flagship E-M1. This question really pains me. The latest disclosures of the company's apparent ethical lapses bother me. It's seems that they have engaged (yet again) in dodgy behaviour and bribery to evade rules that they knew applied:
This follows after their spectacular accounting cover up a few years ago, which resulted in exactly zero change at the company other than firing the (non-Japanese) manager who revealed it:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/u-s-inquiry-grows-over-olympus-payout/
So how much do folks worry about corporate alignment with principles when buying gear? I don't think this kind of thing is unique to Olympus, though that company appears particularly inept and insular. After all, Apple appears to give exactly zero damns about things like worker rights in its suppliers' factories. I suspect that if anyone was to look closely into the operations of just about any major equipment manufacturer that sticky questions would arise.
Yeah, I know that I can let my wallet speak on this. I'm curious if others feel the same.