3 ms·

Seems to be the only solution in the USA. Throw people in jail. Both parties seem to agree on this, they just argue who specifically should get sent.

FranzFerdiNaN 8y ago
Sending rich people to jail is the only real punishment, because fines don’t matter for rich people and large corporations. ING was fined almost a billion euros in the Netherlands for willfully and knowingly laundering money for many years. A month after paying the fine they already made enough profit to have earned back that money. So who cares about the fine? It’s just the price of doing things. Same with fines for rich persons. Who cares about a fine for parking in the wrong spot if it is the equivalent of 10 minutes work. But if you’re poor that fine represents perhaps a whole working day, which is a lot, and thus fines work for poor people. The solution is of course to make fines depend on your income and wealth. So Jeff Bezos will pay 10 million for a traffic ticket, and Joe Schmoe who earns minimum wage perhaps 50 dollar.
- orblivion 8y ago
  It depends if the fine is commensurate with the damage done and goes toward correcting it. That may arguably be the case for parking tickets. It could just as well act as a convenience fee for rich people.
- slededit 8y ago
  Its pretty clear that America is the country it wants to be despite protests to the contrary.
mtgx 8y ago
There's certainly the case of sending too many people to jail for harmless stuff like smoking marijuana. But there's also the case of sending way too few "white collar criminals" to prison, too. Too often they get away with their company paying a sub-1% of their annual revenue fine for a multi-year violation affecting millions from which they made billions of dollars. Virtually no personal accountability for the executives either. Worst case scenario, they get a golden parachute on their way out if the scandal becomes a big enough PR problem for the company.

FranzFerdiNaN 8y ago

Sending rich people to jail is the only real punishment, because fines don’t matter for rich people and large corporations. ING was fined almost a billion euros in the Netherlands for willfully and knowingly laundering money for many years. A month after paying the fine they already made enough profit to have earned back that money. So who cares about the fine? It’s just the price of doing things. Same with fines for rich persons. Who cares about a fine for parking in the wrong spot if it is the equivalent of 10 minutes work. But if you’re poor that fine represents perhaps a whole working day, which is a lot, and thus fines work for poor people. The solution is of course to make fines depend on your income and wealth. So Jeff Bezos will pay 10 million for a traffic ticket, and Joe Schmoe who earns minimum wage perhaps 50 dollar.

orblivion 8y ago
It depends if the fine is commensurate with the damage done and goes toward correcting it. That may arguably be the case for parking tickets. It could just as well act as a convenience fee for rich people.
slededit 8y ago
Its pretty clear that America is the country it wants to be despite protests to the contrary.

mtgx 8y ago

There's certainly the case of sending too many people to jail for harmless stuff like smoking marijuana. But there's also the case of sending way too few "white collar criminals" to prison, too. Too often they get away with their company paying a sub-1% of their annual revenue fine for a multi-year violation affecting millions from which they made billions of dollars. Virtually no personal accountability for the executives either. Worst case scenario, they get a golden parachute on their way out if the scandal becomes a big enough PR problem for the company.