Monetary Punishment.
What I don't get is the basic idea of, "if you mess up, we'll fine you."
Doesn't that just encourage people with a lot of money to mess up, because the only consequence is losing something they already have a lot of?
For example, Eli Lilly (the pharma manufacturer) was brought to court over allegations that they were marketing an anti-schizophrenia drug as treatment for dementia. They made billons of dollars on the off-label sale of this drug, and their punishment was to pay $1.4 Billion in fines and fees.
"The company will pay $615 million to settle a criminal probe and about $800 million to settle civil investigations, and will plead guilty to advertising the drug for unapproved conditions." Newser quote
$615 million to "settle a criminal probe"? Isn't that like saying, "I know I killed that guy, but here's a bunch of money, and why don't we forget it?"
Or how about the notion of "carbon credits"? We're telling companies, 'You can continue to do bad stuff so long as you can afford to buy someone else's excess goodness.'
Is this what capitalism is about?
Doesn't that just encourage people with a lot of money to mess up, because the only consequence is losing something they already have a lot of?
For example, Eli Lilly (the pharma manufacturer) was brought to court over allegations that they were marketing an anti-schizophrenia drug as treatment for dementia. They made billons of dollars on the off-label sale of this drug, and their punishment was to pay $1.4 Billion in fines and fees.
"The company will pay $615 million to settle a criminal probe and about $800 million to settle civil investigations, and will plead guilty to advertising the drug for unapproved conditions." Newser quote
$615 million to "settle a criminal probe"? Isn't that like saying, "I know I killed that guy, but here's a bunch of money, and why don't we forget it?"
Or how about the notion of "carbon credits"? We're telling companies, 'You can continue to do bad stuff so long as you can afford to buy someone else's excess goodness.'
Is this what capitalism is about?