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Comment by pixl97 | Hacker News Reader

Right, this typically works very well after you spend tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars getting all the stuff to court in the first place to have a trial drag on for years in discovery all the while the hospital is sending out debt collectors.

Oh, that's if it wasn't actually a shell company in the first place that has no assets.

A good portion of the things you mention existed before we had food regulations, you could sue the business if you had issues with them. The problem is the vast portion of the population is far too poor to do that. Regulations stop the harm before it happens.

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My claim is narrower: the principle of retaliatory force is practicable. That is, a society can function using only courts, class actions, and government-as-plaintiff, without preemptive editcs on screw sizes or battery compartments.

As I said earlier in this thread:

> Determining the best means of applying the principle of suing corporations in practice is an very complex question that belongs to the philosophy of law.

>My claim is narrower: the principle of retaliatory force is practicable

Ah yes, the school of theory that says it's better to clean up the spilled milk after its been contaminated with uranium waste.

You’re assuming that without preemptive permits, nothing stops a company from spewing uranium. But liability, if properly enforced, is a powerful deterrent. The threat of paying full cleanup costs, compensating victims, and facing criminal charges for negligence doesn’t require an official to approve one’s pipe size in advance.

Further, the principle doesn’t deny retaliating in advance when violence can be objectively anticipated.

This does not and cannot exist when the corporate veil exists. Make a corporate shell and throw it away like a used condom.

Add to that a company can cause a trillion dollars of damage while having only a billion dollars on hand. Criminal charges don't fix things, if they did there wouldn't be murderers in jail.

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