Open Left

The laws are too weak to prevent that.

Not only do the feds a piss poor job in fighting this, imho there is no real punishement in the law for businesses who violate the regulations. Looks like almost all of the US laws include a fixed fine for the offender, something like 1000 dollars for every violation. While this may be effective in cases like wire fraud, and other large scale operations, it falls far short when it comes to crimes where every violation saved the company a sum larger than that. And labor laws, plus environmental rgulation, are the fields where illegal behaviour comes with the highest "rewards". So, lawmakers should put relative fines into their bills, so that the offender has to pay, say, ten times the sum he "saved". This will hurt the corporations, and if it comes coupled with an increase in the number of law enforcement officers, this will be effictive in overcoming the widespread fraud. Hit 'em where it hurts 'em - at their profits!

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by: Gray @ Mon Sep 21, 2009 at 03:58:56 AM CDT