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Warik said:
Youve made this argument before. However, federal law recognizes an incorporated firm as a legal entity with rights and responsibilities which extend past the life of its serving officers.
The reason why such a law was instituted was to place federal accountability for corporate actions committed by its officers, serving or not. Warik, imagine if corporate officers were the only individuals who could be held accountable for illegal commercial transactions or business practices undertaking by incorporated firms. What would happen then?
1) scapegoating would become rampant. Corporate officers would hire no nothing underlyings, make an illegal corporate move, and blame the new guy. The corporation immediately benefits from the actions authorized by the new dude, but experiences no penalty. The little guy takes the fall and consumers, employees, and other firms take a hit because corporate actions are now immune from prosecution.
2) Corporations turnover uppermanagement like crazy to avoid federal prosecution for inditable offenses. IF corporations cant be prosecuted as long as those officers who created and authorized illegal decisions are no longer with the firm, corporations are free to run the board on illicit activity as long as they dont get caught with the hot potatoe = corporate officer which authorized illicit corporate action.
3) Corporations would probably cease to exist in the size they do today because the spirit of misttrust created by corporate employee swapping and scapegoating would undermine employee motivation to serve the firm. Why work for a firm if youll be held personably liable for irroneous and illegal corporate decision making that you were coerced to authorize????
There has to be corporate accountability, both to shareholders, and to the government, or else the law of the jungle = the human propenstity to fuck other people over, would run rampant.
Now getting back to your point. Corporations in fact *do* have a legal and moral obligation to minimize liability exposure by participating in only those commercial activities which are relativily moral, and by all means legal. Sure, corporations can do whatever the fuck they want, but look at tabbacoo firms now. They are getting fucked in a big way. They knowingly sold, and targeted carcengenic products to the public, all the while withholding irrefutable evidence said products caused cancer. Now theyre getting fucked. Yes its the consumers fault for purchasing the product, and yes its the governments fault for legalizing smoking. But its also the corporations fault for committing an immoral act by producing and promoting a product which severly comprimises the health of those using it.
Its better 1 guilty party pays the price, then no guilty party.
Without personal and commercial accountability, our whole society would fall apart.
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