The average joe would be in jail or face a heavy fine if they are caught doing illegal activities like tax evasion or stealing. Corporations on the other hand perform illegal activities like tax evasion, fraud, wage theft or price fixing on a MUCH larger scale, MUCH higher impact to the society, and higher frequency, yet they almost always get away with barely a slap on the wrist (i.e. a laughably small fine which is less than pocket change, and zero consequences for the c-suite). Is it because it’s easier to prosecute individual average joe’s as opposed to multiple billionaires who probably has connections with the justice system and government?
In: Other
For all intents and purposes, having an excess of $100 million USD effectively means you have infinite resources. And when you do something illegal, if the victim either has too little capital or attention, you basically buy the “Get out of Jail” card. Sure, you pay half a million to settle, or a quarter million to drag out the court proceedings ad nauseum, but to you, that’s anywhere from 0.3%-0.5% of your company’s value (which is made up of all the current cash & assets plus the perception that you’ll generate truckloads of revenue).
Sadly, this is another reason why post IPO corporations with fund managers running the Board is a problem. To them, hurting the average person is no worse than stepping on a bug. Sure, you get gross stuff on your shoes, but it’s a trivial annoyance compared to the victim’s loss of life. It’s all about maximizing revenue, and when bad things happen, you just shrug, say “Shit happens”, and focus on making the problem go away rather than atonement.
The other challenge is that in the U.S., corporations are treated as quasi-persons. In one way, this makes life easier because you don’t need to worry about different laws for the same set of circumstances; you don’t need to worry about the law affecting a tiny business differently than a big business. But, they’re not. *Ultimately no one is liable.* The Board, Officers, and Executive Team might play the aforementioned legal games, but they individually never harmed anyone and it’s extremely difficult to trace any direct actions to them because businesses have certain “information” protections (i.e., “Trade Secrets”).
As I said before, “Corporations are People” doesn’t work. Ultimately, they’re a fundamentally different beast whose objective is to just farm captial from the populace. I’m not saying every busniess is bad and greedy. But, when you’re told, “Hey, here’s a bucket of money. Go tell this group of people what to do with it. Your responsibility is to double the bucket in two years.” Well… you can’t help but detach yourself from reality.
**TL;DR**: If your business is big enough, it’s a giant among hobits. And whoever controls it is often mandated to focus on abstract objectives instead of real-world consequences. To thwart this, the laws need to change in the U.S., but I doubt that’s going to happen any time soon.
Latest Answers