How often again do you hear billionaires say "Oh no, I wish I had been more ethical and not made mountains of cash off by shitty behavior", because I'm not having any recollections of this.
The fines are just a cost of doing business for them.
The fines are just a cost of doing business for them.
Also, how is nobody in the government responsible?
It really feels like the Sackler family has been bundled up as a nice solution to the whole thing.
The fines only slightly raise the cost of this raw material from $0, so it's unlikely to deter Meta's behavior until someone faces a more severe penalty there.
It'd be great if the USA had some kind of effective consumer protection agency, but I guess then we might have fewer billionaires here.
Doesn't make it right, but we shouldn't assume the people responsible don't feel responsible simply because we aren't hearing about it.
If we don't like how something works, we should understand the factors that shape it. If someone's internal preferences are contrary to their actions, that's worth knowing, as it says something about the strength of the incentive structures. This is true for any person of any status, not least the rich, who, ideally, should not be destructive forces in society.
Private preferences and feelings are relevant to the analysis.