Putting a corporation 'in jail' is essentially a death sentence, since no corporation is realistically going to survive that process. That would have lasting, negative repercussions for people who have committed not crime beyond being employed by someone who did.
I completely agree that more robust methods for punishing criminal corporate acts are required, but those can take many other forms – and I'd personally side with individual responsibility for illegal actions.
I'm not against personally prosecuting those in charge, but it's often extremely difficult to prove that specific individuals are responsible.
There is a simpler solution. Impose bigger fines. Much much bigger fines. Make the cost/benefit calculus for breaking rules so unattractive that the prudent business decision is to not break them.
Right now, when these companies are caught, they have to pay back what they stole, and sometimes get hit with a not so bad punitive damage. They should instead be hit with damages so hard that it kills their stock price, and does serious damage to the company itself. It will make the people in charge more careful.
> I'm not against personally prosecuting those in charge, but it's often extremely difficult to prove that specific individuals are responsible.
But isn't that the whole reason CEO's get paid so much, because they carry so much responsibility ? Most corporations have a clear chain of command, should be quite easy to figure out who is responsible (which can be separate from who actually committed the crime).
No, but they use it as a justification for their ridiculous salaries so I’d say we take them up on it and hold them personally responsible for their company’s crimes.
The threat of corporations going to jail would be a great disincentive for them growing too large. I think we would be much better off if we had more smaller companies.
I completely agree that more robust methods for punishing criminal corporate acts are required, but those can take many other forms – and I'd personally side with individual responsibility for illegal actions.