[lupusreal]

Doing anything by fractions of profit is an invitation for Hollywood accounting. "Oops we have no profit because we have accountants who's job it is to shuffle money around in circles until everybody gets confused and gives up."

> simply bankrupt a corporation, which is not what you want if your goal is to change behavior.

Yes it is. Nuke the corporation and burn all the investors. This will teach a lesson.

[crazygringo]

No it's not.

The goal of punishment is correction of behavior, not destruction.

By your logic, we ought to apply the death penalty for stealing a candy bar. Because that will teach a lesson too, no?

[lupusreal]

The purposes of punishment include rehabilitation, as you mention, but also deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, denunciation, and restoration:

Deterrence: Destruction of the corporation serves as a lesson to the rest of society, to scare them away from doing the same.

Incapacitation: A corporation which no longer exists cannot reoffend.

Retribution: The deserve nothing less.

Denunciation: Overlaps with deterrence; gives people the benifit of knowing they live in a society where wrongdoing is punished. Suppresses vigilantism.

Restoration: The funds retrieved by bankrupting and liquidating the corporation can, at least in principle, go towards undoing the harm the corporation caused.

As for stealing candy bars, I think there is merit to going light on children. But corporations? Corporations are not children. They aren't even people. They deserve no mercy.

[crazygringo]

> Corporations are not children. They aren't even people. They deserve no mercy.

What?

Corporations provide us with valuable products and services we rely on. They employ people.

Corporations aren't evil, as you seem to think. Like people, they make mistakes, because they're made of people.

Your attitude is sociopathic, quite honestly. It scares me.