Hacker News Reader

Comment by VoodooJuJu | Hacker News Reader

We unfortunately see it far too often - corporate crimes that are punished with simple fines that become the cost of doing business. But we all know it's not justice. Justice would be criminal charges against the people within the corporation that actually did the crime.

We're long overdue for some change here.

Are there are any politicians or bills (past or present) that have floated the idea of exposing shareholder skin in the corporate game? If these people were threatened with serious prison time, capital punishment, or even worse - being forced to drive a used Kia the rest of their lives (materialists couldn't bear the shame), we'd see far less harm being done.

View on HN

Another option would be easier corporate death — all shares instantly voided.

The government could decide what to do with the company, fold it, or sell it for scraps.

Yes, there might be motivation for the government to “kill” companies for profits, but there is exactly the same (and proved many times!) issue with putting people in prison, so I don’t see why companies should get a special exception, they are “people” as well, or so I’m told.

I think you're on the right track here.. corporate death, shares voided, assets frozen in perpetuity, buildings, land, machinery. Everything frozen forever to stand as a warning to the next executive or employee before doing something like this.

You can even start with corporate jail. No business operations of any kind allowed for weeks/months, be that preforming services for clients, servicing debts, contracts or payroll. And if that results in an existential threat to the company or a lot of lawsuits for failing to perform their obligations, then that would be the just results of the company's decisions.

It would be as existentially threatening and crippling to a company as it currently is to the average member of society.

Unfortunately, I think there is a lot of overlap between shareholders and politicians. The people making the laws have an incentive not to expose shareholders to personal liability.

If powerful or opportunistic criminals were at risk of being criminally charged by the government, they're then utterly incentivized to influence and control said government.

And that has already happened since forever, which is why you have to ask if there are politicians threatening this. It's all already tied together.

We just need to impart fear on the executives to not make harmful decisions. The first step is an independent investigation to let their names be known to the public. The system should then be able to self-correct.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com