{"id":24285,"date":"2011-12-06T20:35:34","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T03:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/06\/corporations-arent-people-because-they-dont-go-to-jail.html"},"modified":"2011-12-07T14:54:28","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T21:54:28","slug":"corporations-arent-people-because-they-dont-go-to-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/06\/corporations-arent-people-because-they-dont-go-to-jail.html","title":{"rendered":"Corporations aren't people — because they don't go to jail"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, huge, major, massive, record-breaking fines over the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. That's all well and good.<\/p>\n

But look at what happened here. Read the article. Performance Coal did (or didn't do) X, Massey Mining did (or didn't do) Y, Etc. All sorts of actions and inactions that led to "entirely preventable" deaths. <\/p>\n

And the results are some very big fines.<\/p>\n

So … company names aside … who were the people<\/i> involved? Who were the individuals that allowed the "flagrant safety violations"? Who were the people that encouraged the "practice of trying to cover up major hazards"? There wasn't some generic company avatar doing these things. It was individuals — foremen, managers, executives.<\/p>\n

So what happens to them (aside from, one hopes, a lifetime of sleepless nights)? Were any of them named in the reports? Will that impact their future employability? Is anyone going to do time<\/b> for these "entirely preventable" deaths?<\/i><\/p>\n

Apparently not. Major fines are a good thing, but they're a dispassionate thing. It's numbers on a balance sheet. And maybe the company doesn't offer a dividend this year, or the profits are down enough to hurt someone's bonuses, or maybe a company goes out of business (and puts all those workers out of jobs).<\/p>\n

Companies can't go to jail. They can only be fined.<\/p>\n

So where are the flesh and blood people behind these deaths? #ddtb<\/p>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDeaths at UBB \u2018entirely preventable,' MSHA report says\u00a0
\n – News –
\nThe Charleston Gazette – West Virginia News and Sports –<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, huge, major, massive, record-breaking fines over the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. That's all well and good. But look at what happened here. Read the article. Performance Coal did (or didn't do) X, Massey Mining did (or didn't do) Y, Etc. All sorts of actions and inactions that led to "entirely preventable" deaths. And … Continue reading “Corporations aren't people — because they don't go to jail”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35,21],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-24285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business","category-job-jollies","tag-ddtb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33841,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/16\/when-i-was-hungry.html","url_meta":{"origin":24285,"position":0},"title":"When I was hungry","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-May-13 9:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"One refreshing aspect in this article is that people -- politicians -- are beginning to speak up that this is not just a matter of public policy and tax burdens and budget deficits, but a moral issue:'Republicans defended the cuts after Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., quoted the Book of Matthew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31342,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/12\/what-citizens-united-did-and-didnt-do-this-past-election.html","url_meta":{"origin":24285,"position":1},"title":"What "Citizens United" did and didn't do this past election","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Nov-12 6:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"What \"Citizens United\" did and didn't do this past electionOn the bright side, it didn't simply allow groups to \"buy\" the election by completely flooding the market with commercials. \u00a0That doesn't mean that campaign money is useless, just that it is not sufficient, certainly not in a presidential campaign when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43373,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/06\/people-have-goals-and-aspirations-corporations-are-out-for-profit.html","url_meta":{"origin":24285,"position":2},"title":"People have goals and aspirations. Corporations are out for profit","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 6-Jul-14 5:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And that is the key problem with the Hobby Lobby decision (and Citizens United before it). \u00a0'Here is the textbook legal definition of a corporation: an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6912,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/03\/standard_no_lon.html","url_meta":{"origin":24285,"position":3},"title":"Standard no longer","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Dec-04 10:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"I remember when \"It's 100% IBM-Compatible\" was the gold standard by which PCs were judged. Sure, you could get things that were mostly compatible with authentic IBM PC hardware --...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1267,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/02\/04\/enron_and_ethic.html","url_meta":{"origin":24285,"position":4},"title":"Enron and ethics","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Feb-02 8:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"Carlton Vogt, ethics columnist for InfoWorld, has some good thoughts on the Enron scandal and how it occured. 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Aside from some bad investments by Bob...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}