[airza]

why would it be a good thing if companies spent more on fines than on costs to comply with regulations?

[asdfman123]

If it costs less to build adequate storage tanks than it costs to pay fines for your oil leaks, companies will build adequate storage tanks.

That's how regulations protect public interest.

[dqpb]

People will do the thing that costs less.

[glacials]

Total amount fined vs total amount spent complying aren't comparable numbers. One side has orders of magnitude more organizations comprising its number than the other.

We need a median amount fined to non-complying organizations vs. median amount spent complying by complying organizations.