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Comment by slantyyz | Hacker News Reader

what incentives might motivate the business community to be socially responsible.

I don't disagree with the spirit of what you're saying, but people and businesses are naturally inclined to game whatever rules and regulations are in place if it means maximizing revenue.

While jail time may not be the answer, I do think a stick might be more effective than a carrot.

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I am curious how far you want to go with the idea that a stick is more effective than a carrot. Do you feel that economies where the bulk of economic activity is organized via free actors engage in voluntary exchange tend to be more dynamic than economies where the government plays the major role in organizing economic activity? If not, on what basis would you justify allowing the existence of non-governmental economic activity?

I carefully used the word "might" because this is clearly a complex issue, and I'm no economist.

As someone who would otherwise be classified as "pro-business", I have found myself more and more dismayed by the bad behaviour of the largest corporations and their influence on the government.

A corporation is a legal entity with rights equal to a human, but in an Animal Farm kind of way. Their influence over governments and lawmaking make them "more equal" than Joe Q. Public. I would like to see checks and balance to keep the most flagrant corporate/financial bad behaviour under control.

" I have found myself more and more dismayed by the bad behaviour of the largest corporations and their influence on the government."

Me too. That's not the issue. The issue is why anyone would suggest jail. There is a large range of actions that could be pursued to modify the incentives that lead people to make reckless gambles with credit. Why not pursue those other actions first? Why not change the financial incentives? Why resort to jail?

I didn't suggest jail. I only suggested a stick. That stick could be in the form of fines or other financial sanctions.

Yes, that's what I said. There are many, many changes that could be made to the system that would change the incentives that motivate the people in the financial industry, and by changing the incentives we could expect that their behavior would alter. None of which requires jail. Larger fines should be enough to greatly change the incentives.

I wasn't suggesting that you suggested jail. This thread is about an article in which Stiglitz suggests jail.

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