The real problem then, is that corporations have unchecked power. No one acting behind them is personally liable for their illegal behavior.
Corporations can't go to jail. They only pay fines that are a fraction of their profits from the illegal behavior, which is a mathematical incentive for them to break the law before their competitors.
Even in silicon valley, we laud AirBNB, Uber, Facebook, Google, et al.
Do you want corporations to be better or not care?
I’m a fan of forcing corporations to issue shares to the victims.
Do something minor? 10% dilution. Do something worthy of the corporate death penalty? Issue 100 shares for every share outstanding.
Of course, the issued shares would have as many votes as the maximum currently issued share (so if the founders get 10 votes per share that is what the victims get too).
Note that you can set precedents based on percentage ownership, so this naturally scales to large (and small) companies.
If this were common practice, I guarantee you that companies would be a lot more careful to obey the law: The ceo, founders, and investors all would have a bigger personal financial incentive to obey the law than to break it.
"I’m a fan of forcing corporations to issue shares to the victims."
Typically, the victims of corporate malfeasance are considered to be the (existing) shareholders, in the American system. Like, there's a lawsuit on behalf of the shareholders when pretty much anything goes wrong that affects the stock price. There's quite a contrast to the common opinion on HN and elsewhere, where the shareholders are identified with the corporate malefactors.
Fascinating suggestion. I'm trying to think of consequences.
Among those: if lawyers get 30% of settlements, then large consumer-rights law firms could end up as major shareholders. That could get v. interesting several ways.
Brings up one of the largest scams out there. Investment managers of mutual an 401k funds retain the voting rights of the shares under management. Effectively locking most American's out of corporate governance. Ever notice when shills talk about the holy god given rights of shareholders they never talk about that?
Why shares instead of cash? How will issuing shares in Airbnb help people struggling to find affordable accommodations in the city where they live/work?
Airbnb isn't even public, so the shares are essentially worthless unless someone takes on the expense and hassle of pooling them together and finding a private buyer. And even then, there's a major imbalance of power because private buyers are usually wealthy individuals/funds and know that the seller is desperate for cash.
Corporations can, however, have sanctions imposed on them, like Huawei or ZTE. Perhaps we ought to explore placing companies that routinely lie to consumers on the BIS Entity List, and bar other American companies from doing business with them until they change their ways.
How hard would it be to write laws that punish companies in ways that will shape their behavior, like we do with people? All you have to do is take away their ability to business in your jurisdiction. That's corporate jail.
Corporations can't go to jail. They only pay fines that are a fraction of their profits from the illegal behavior, which is a mathematical incentive for them to break the law before their competitors.
Even in silicon valley, we laud AirBNB, Uber, Facebook, Google, et al.
Do you want corporations to be better or not care?