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Prison is the only thing that deters millionaires and billionaires from purposefully destroying priceless treasures to humanity to get at the commonplace resources that lay underneath.

Financial disincentives have NEVER worked because our system isn't designed to punish these things, by design.

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If the reason they do these things is for money (which I think is fair to assume) then money is clearly an effective incentive. The fines just have to make it unprofitable.

Fines are tax-deductible. They're better at gaming the system than policymakers are at fixing it.

1. That's literally not true, you're just making stuff up: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/102915/are-irs-pena...

2. Even if it was, do you understand what a deduction is? You still lose money; you'd be changing the base on your federal income payments, but since your income tax is at most 40% or so, you're still paying at minimum 60% of the penalty (even if it was deductible, which it is not).

1. That's a very specific type of penalty.

2. Business taxes aren't the same as individuals taxes.

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