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Comment by robofanatic

3 years ago

Who is held responsible if a company gets fined or sued? Does someone get fired?

> Who is held responsible if a company gets fined or sued? Does someone get fired?

In the past shareholders were loosing money because their shares lost some value. Then they could fire CEO/take actions to put some pain on people responsible. But now shares don't loose value or even gain it, because how absurdly small fines are. CEOs have golden parachutes and only people who get fired are nameless minions who were forced to do it. Everyone above is blameless because every decision is made by committee, so no single person is responsible for anything.

I think the only justification for the outrageously high pay CEOs get should be personal liability for corporate malfeasance. We should put CEOs in prison.

  • > We should put CEOs in prison

    So in an obscure settings toggle, in one version of iOS that was immediately fixed, some developer probably unknowingly set a toggle default to a setting that contravened an EU law… and you think Tim Cook should go to prison??

    I just finished reading a book where one of the chapters was about factories in north New York where the executives covered-up systematic leaking of dioxin into the local environment for decades.

    But sure - Tim Cook should go to prison to appease your Apple hatred.

    • I'm responding from an iPhone, as it happens. I'm not super fond of Apple, but there are far worse actors out there.

      This specific case may not warrant prison, but CEOs are in a problematic space: They get massively well paid to make decisions that they suffer no ill effects for. They reap the rewards of success but do not face any repercussions if they do something wrong. They won't get fired, and they won't face penalty for illegal actions. Even if they make a decision that hurts the business financially, it tends to be other employees who get let go.

      We should hold CEOs personally liable for the violations of the law of their companies, because it's the best way to ensure CEOs are motivated to ensure their companies behave legally, not just profitably.

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