ING was fined almost a billion euros in the Netherlands for willfully and knowingly laundering money for many years. A month after paying the fine they already made enough profit to have earned back that money. So who cares about the fine? It’s just the price of doing things.

Same with fines for rich persons. Who cares about a fine for parking in the wrong spot if it is the equivalent of 10 minutes work. But if you’re poor that fine represents perhaps a whole working day, which is a lot, and thus fines work for poor people.

The solution is of course to make fines depend on your income and wealth. So Jeff Bezos will pay 10 million for a traffic ticket, and Joe Schmoe who earns minimum wage perhaps 50 dollar.

Too often they get away with their company paying a sub-1% of their annual revenue fine for a multi-year violation affecting millions from which they made billions of dollars. Virtually no personal accountability for the executives either. Worst case scenario, they get a golden parachute on their way out if the scandal becomes a big enough PR problem for the company.