4 ms·
my point is that financial penalties for illegal activity is not enough - law breaking just becomes a cost-benefit analysis that is constantly exploited. for in
by 93po 2y ago
my point is that financial penalties for illegal activity is not enough - law breaking just becomes a cost-benefit analysis that is constantly exploited. for instance, the largest source of theft every single year is wage theft by employers. there is no real accountability for law breaking by corporations
- bmelton 2y agoPunishment is a separate discussion from personhood though. As I've said in another nearby comment, personhood enables central accountability in ways preferable to its absence. Aside from that though, we have lots of other enforcement mechanisms that we don't avail ourselves of for lots of reasons, some rational, some not. We can imprison executives, as we've done with Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes, Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Skilling, Jordan Belfort, Martin Shkrelli, Donald Blankenship, etc. We can also mandate compliance or impose oversight, mandate public apologies, ban companies from engaging in certain business activities (thinking HSBC being banned from financial services after money laundering,) impose corporate probation, mandate recalls, clawbacks, or probably lots of other things that don't immediately come to mind. That we typically just impose financial penalties is probably a reflection of our values as a people or a judicial system or our government's willingness to collect fines, but we should not pretend that it's the only available option.