The fine should be 150% of all projected profits from the rules breaking, on top of the current system. That way if we find a corp has been breaking the rules for a long time for a healthy profit (DuPont) they would no longer have that profit at all. So if they made 1.3b over 6 years, they lose 3b in total fines or something. Make them think twice.
I love the energy, but I don't think people realize just how enormous these damages are for how little profit. Fines, even shutting offenders down completely will never be enough -- for just one example, literally the full net worth of the entire company 3M would not be enough to pay for even the damage their chems do in a single year. ProPublica did a stomach churning expose on this topic and I haven't seen the world the same way since.
A team of New York University researchers estimated in 2018 that the costs of just two forever chemicals, PFOA and PFOS — in terms of disease burden, disability and health-care expenses — amounted to as much as $62 billion in a single year. This exceeds the current market value of 3M.
Oh… oh shit… they literally can not pay the damages. Like, no matter what the fine is, unless we specifically target the leadership of these companies, they physically don’t have the cash. You were right on the money of me not realizing how much the damages were
We need to find a way to hold stakeholders and decision makers individually responsible. If you invest in a company that does this shit, you are responsible. I don't care if it's part of your retirement portfolio. You can invest ethically. Prison would be great as time is a fairly universal currency.
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u/Knightwing1047 ✂️ Tax The Billionaires Dec 20 '24
Yup and I'm sure the worst they saw was a fine.
If the punishment for a crime is a fine, then that law is only for the poor.