4 ms·

> But the point of a fine is to be a deterrent. Is it? Or is it purely to make the action a net negative?

• dartos 2y ago
  The purpose of a fine is to deter an action. Making an action a net negative _can_ act as a deterrent as in the $1B case earlier. The issue is that, at a certain scale, the risk of simply having an action be a net negative may be worth the potential upside. I honestly don’t understand what’s so disagreeable about this idea. What else would a fine be other than a serious deterrent to an illegal action? A mild annoyance? What else could the point be? I guess social retribution? But that’s just pointless.
  • refurb 2y ago
    > The issue is that, at a certain scale, the risk of simply having an action be a net negative may be worth the potential upside I agree there, but if you're going to come up with a system of fines to incentivize not breaking the law, it needs to make sense. Just making it a huge numbers is likely to not even pass muster in the courts. A $10B company paying a $1B fine for sending out spam mail to 10 customers would be seen as "cruel and unusual punishment".