I was just reading about a violation of the Canadian fisheries act that has a maximum penalty of $200k, and realized the absurdity of there ever being a maximum fine.

There should be no maximum fine on any corporate penalty given that we do not cap the size of corporations or their bank accounts.

It would be like having maximum jail terms of 25 years for immortal beings that can live to 10,000.

  • jtrek@startrek.website
    3·
    4 hours ago

    it’s like a “you break it, you buy it” policy - you charge as much as the broken thing costs

    So if the thing they broke can never be whole again, we take infinite value out of the company? Leave all the shareholders with nothing, seize their personal assets, and put their pictures on a big “WALL OF SHAME - DO NOT SERVE” mural? I could get behind this.

    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      3 hours ago

      The cost of the violation is determined in advance, and should be proportional to how much it would cost to pay people to accept the risk of harm, not how much it would cost to undo the harm. People are usually quite willing to accept a small risks of harm even if that harm can’t be undone. For example, currently US government policy generally values the life of an American at (IIRC) about eight million dollars, which corresponds to the average American being willing to take a one in a million chance of dying for eight dollars. Someone who takes that bet gets eight dollars even if he’s the unlucky one who dies.