Shouldn’t we hold business to the same standards as a 13-year old boy? Do we really worship business so much that we don’t even expect it to have teenage standards of conduct, must less adult?
Sometimes, business equals death. And we don’t care. Want to commit murder? Incorporate. Then, it’s easy.
I read three news stories today:The Florida Supreme Court threw out the tobacco company hundred-billion-dollar penalty because, as RJ Reynolds spokesperson David Howard notes, “The damages would have been crippling to businesses… It was excessive. … As a matter of law, punitive damages are not intended to put people out of business.”
If you recall, the reason for the supposedly-large award (really not very big compared to the total Tobacco company revenues altogether), is that it turns out … whoops … tobacco companies knew their product was addictive, had lied about it to Congress under oath, had deliberately created campaigns targetting children, and knew full well that their addictive, teenage-targeted product killed people.
Surely they’ve learned their lesson. For example, consider today’s study just released, estimating that 1 billion people will die this century from Tobacco-related causes.
CUT TO: A 15-year old boy found guilty of killing a playmate. He gets 26 years in jail, effectively destroying his chances at life. That means his entire prime is spent behind bars. All the years in which he could build a base of education, experience, etc., get taken from him. Effectively, any chance he has of a productive life is over.
I guess I just don’t understand why the double standard. Perhaps I’m the world’s worst Harvard MBA, but shouldn’t businesses be subject to penalties as least as severe as individual penalties? Or, given how much public infrastructure they take up (most of the justice department is corporate law, for example), shouldn’t they be held to higher standards of conduct?
Tobacco destroys value. It kills people. People are valuable (don’t believe me? Lose a child. Then you’ll understand). The medical costs of Tobacco company actions is born by individuals and insurance companies. Those costs aren’t allocated back to the company. This pricing misallocation leads the companies to false profitability.
Now add in executives who lie, falsify uncomfortable scientific data, deliberately target teenagers for addiction and death, and then lie to Congress about it. How should we react? Apparently by worrying that “we might cripple the business.”
I say: euthanasia. Terminate it. Lock it up. Deprive it of oxygen. Slaughter it. Force it to spend its prime eating gruel until it’s good for nothing. Disassemble it. Disperse it. Scatter its parts to the winds, until some other enterprising entrepreneur uses those resources in a way that’s healthy to society, as well as being healthy to the owners. And what about the shareholders? They lose. They get nothing. Because they invested in a company that destroyed value. And they, as owners, deserve to take responsibility for their actions.
But that’s not what we do. Instead, we celebrate profits and breath a sigh of *cough cought* relief that business is safe, even as we’re dying by the billions.
Posted by Stever in Ethics