Hacker News Reader

> When a nationstate says "It's illegal to do X" but has mandatory accounting practices that do not measure X but only measure profit

We don't need accountants to measure legality. That's what we have law enforcement and courts for. Investors care about profits; behaving illegally should hurt profits. Deputising a multi-billion dollar company's thousands of shareholders as its moral police is an absurd proposal.

View on HN

Law enforcement and courts aren't funded in a way that makes that effective.

> Law enforcement and courts aren't funded in a way that makes that effective

In the 1930s, the Congress realized that financial crimes were (a) prevalent, (b) serious and (c) difficult to investigate and prosecute. So it created the SEC [1]. Its specialists, with the budget, focus and mandate to pursue securities-related violations, have been effective (relative to pre-1930s finance).

Regulators make rules. They also enforce them. We have no top cop for technology. The costs of that gap are becoming apparent.

Average US citizens have no comprehension of 1930s America, FDR, etc. but the same people will instinctually glorify the 1950s as a time when traditional values led to economic prosperity.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com