5 ms·
The fine doesn't even amount to a slap on the wrist. It's like if someone stole $1000 worth of merchandise from a store and the only punishment is a $1000 fine
by dolni 2y ago
The fine doesn't even amount to a slap on the wrist.
It's like if someone stole $1000 worth of merchandise from a store and the only punishment is a $1000 fine... and you get to keep what you stole.
Why be law abiding when you could break the law and potentially make more money? You'd have to be stupid to be law abiding in a system like that.
- Mo3 2y agoSurely the fines will become exponentially bigger every time they are caught doing the same, right?
- erikaww 2y agoThey’ll learn to cover their tracks better
- 6510 2y agoWe will keep the secret quotas secret from hereforth.
- giuseppe_petri 2y agoNot... double secret quotas!
- DaoVeles 2y agoYep, every time someone is defeated they can learn one of two lessons. How not to do it again OR how to not get caught again.
- throwaway562if1 2y ago[dead]
- coldtea 2y agoLOL, doubt it
- fwungy 2y agoFrom the politicians they funded?
- darth_avocado 2y agoIt’s actually more like: You stole $1000 and if you are caught, your fine is $10.
- Aurornis 2y ago> It's like if someone stole $1000 worth of merchandise from a store and the only punishment is a $1000 fine... and you get to keep what you stole. No, it's not like that at all. The fine was for two specific locations and it was for not disclosing specific quotas in writing. Drawing analogies to a person stealing from a store doesn't make sense. The fine was likely calculated to offset any potential gains they may have made by failing to disclose quotas, whatever that may be. So again, your analogy about getting to keep what you stole doesn't make sense. Basically none of these analogies or proportionality arguments in this thread make sense at all. I suspect half of the reason is that nobody read past the headline far enough to realize that it was for two specific locations, not for Amazon the entire giant business. The people trying to use Amazon's total earnings across all business units across all locations as part of their argument are extremely misleading.
- nwienert 2y agoOn a more general note, fines need to be something like 5-10x of the benefit, not 1-2x. Of course the gov has limited resources, limited ability to win trials, etc, so they need to be far beyond just compensation.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> fines need to be something like 5-10x of the benefit, not 1-2x There is zero chance Amazon was saving more than $1mm at these two warehouses from hiding quotas since the law went into effect. We’re already at 5x+ (most likely 10x+) benefit before considering damages.
- cool_dude85 2y agoI'd be interested to see what labor costs are at these facilities. I could easily buy that, if they rightfully disclosed the quotas they put people under, they would need to pay significantly more in order to attract and retain workers. Maybe 10% - 20% more, including taxes and benefits?
- chefandy 2y ago
- rahimnathwani 2y agoIt's like if someone stole $1000 worth of merchandise from a store and the only punishment is a $1000 fine... and you get to keep what you stole. Not the best analogy... In San Francisco if you steal $950 worth of merchandise from a store, there is no fine or punishment, and you get to keep what you stole.
- bee_rider 2y agoWould you say that’s a good thing or a bad thing? If you think it is a bad thing, then it seems like a fitting analogy, right?
- rahimnathwani 2y agoIf GP's point is about the justice system in general, then yes. If GP's point is about this fine in particular, or about how big corporations are treated in general, then it's a poor analogy.
- seanmcdirmid 2y agoIs this why Europe fines American companies based only on their global income? Like, hey you violated this privacy thing in the EU, and you made a lot of money outside of the EU, so give us a few billion.
- refurb 2y agoNot really. If their revenue was $100M from breaking the law, but the margins were only 1%, then they profited $1M. So a $5.9M fine would have been almost 6x the benefit.