Proportional Punishments Dependent on a Person/Corporation's Wealth

PROPORTIONAL PUNISHMENTS are required for individual and corporate responsibility. Current law allows the worst offenders against humanity to pay minuscule fines instead of facing punishments that deter crimes. My proposed law would make responsibility paramount in every industry and act as a REAL deterrent to violations of regulations and laws. It would also make individual punishments equal by fining people a percentage of their wealth and not continue to have a system that allows unequal punishments for identical crimes. Deterrents to crimes are only effective if punishments are more just and equal, and based on the wealth of individuals and corporations.

All people and corporations should face proportional punishments based on their wealth when they commit a crime, violate a regulation or violate any law. As an example, currently corporations violate regulations with impunity and consider fines as just another expense in conducting their business. Current punishments have zero detrimental effects on crimes for the very wealthy. If we used proportional punishments a corporation's first offense could be say 1% of their total wealth. A 2nd violation would increase the penalty to 5% and so on. Since corporations or the wealthy can only be forced to adhere to laws and regulations by hitting them in the only area that truly hurts them then proportional punishments would act as a perfect deterrent to their crimes.

In another example, if a poor person gets a littering ticket any fines should be proportional to their net wealth, which if close to zero, the fine would be say $5. If a billionaire committed the same offense their penalty would be a proportional one based entirely on their wealth. If their wealth was $1 billion and the percentage of the fine was 1% then their resulting fine would be $10,000,000.

I've seen warnings that if an individual poured even one can of used oil on the ground they can be fined up to $25,000 and face time in jail. Corporate executives do not face any repercussions when their corporations release toxins into our air, land or waters because they know government oversight is lax because of gutting of enforcement and lack of adequate laws that would deter such heinous acts. My proposed law would make personal & corporate responsibility a reality because only when the wealthiest face severe financial punishments corporate carnage against people and the environment will these crimes become less frequent.

Since fines and punishments are supposed to be deterrents to violations of laws and regulations then the only way to enforce them fairly and equally is through proportional punishments. Financial punishments that are identical no matter what a person's or corporation's total wealth are currently ignored. The current system is regressive and punishments only truly affect the poorest in society. Fining an unemployed person $200 & a billionaire $200 isn't equality under the law. It's a regressive punishment which can devastate the poorest. The wealthy couldn't care less if they receive a $200 fine. It doesn't provide a penny of deterrent.

To make proportional punishments even more effective corporate fines should be also paid by the entire executive level of corporations and their boards of directors. Currently, CEOs, CFOs, COOs and the like suffer no punishments for the unlawful actions by the corporations they run. Fines against corporations now are merely added on to the cost of products corporations make so we the cunsumer pay 100% of a corporation's wrongdoing while the poorest individuals pay 100% of any fine they receive. Individuals cannot pass on fines as expenses to others.

Corporate executives should be forced to pay a percentage of their personal wealth in addition to any corporate fines. If an executive presiding over a corporation has a net wealth of $100 million and their corporation violates a regulation or law they should face the identical punishments based on a percentage of their wealth. If a corporation has commited multiple offenses and the proportional punishment percentage has risen to 10%, the the CEO with a net worth of $100 million would be forced to pay a fine of $10,000,000.00. Only then would a corporate executive act responsibly to have his corporation adhere to the law.

Except in a minuscule number of cases corporate executives are 100% protected from any financial punishments no matter how heinous the acts of the corporations they lead. Executives are fully aware that they don't have to have any personal responsibility because they are insulated from ramifications of any offenses they or their corporations commit. To have a fair & equitable deterrent to violations of regulations and laws THAT HAS TO CHANGE. Currently, if a corporation has 20 violations of regulations or laws executives are often rewarded with even greater salaries and perks. Executives benefit from a defective system by willfully violating laws knowing they will suffer zero consequences.

Until we have PROPORTIONAL PUNISHMENTS our country will continue to deteriorate because the worst offenders are shielded and all fines are paid for by the customers of any corporation.

We must force executives who benefit from willful violations of regulations and laws to be held personally responsible, and in addition, corporations must also face financial punishments that increase with each infraction. The proportional punishment law I am proposing doesn't affect any other laws or regulations. The punishments I am advocating are in addition to all existing laws.

Anyone who is opposed to my proposal is in effect against corporate & personal responsibility and opposed to equitable punishment under the law.