People with a lot of technical know-how would suddenly be set loose in a cash rich environment full of new millionaires who are looking to build their own empires.
That scenario could very well be a second dotcom boom.
More to the point, when one of the little people gets caught breaking the law, we don't question the consequences their punishment will have on any industry. These companies not only broke the law but were terrible corporate citizens.
Anything that doesn't hurt a lot will not be an appropriate punishment, it'll just be considered the cost of doing business.
Also, Tesla sales would go sub-orbital.
Frankly, that needs to happen, and not only when theres cause. We need a Netflix chaos monkey that breaks up big companies and redistributes their wealth to let creative destruction create something better.
Google has ~$35 billion.
I'm not presenting that as an argument about the reasonableness of $300 billion, but it would likely not bankrupt them.
Also, free cash is hardly their only capital. Google could for example sell YouTube. They could also sell bonds or stock etc.
PS: Not that I think 300B is the right penalty, but there needs to be some real risks to prevent such behaviors or the penalties simply become yet another cost of doing business.
Assuming that it would actually bankrupt them, how does bankruptcy cost jobs?
The cash goes to employees who will likely spend / re-invest in the startup economy, this will likely create more jobs as there are economies of scale in software companies.
The capital remains and would be sold to a new owner... since these companies are profitable the jobs remain and the company just has a lower bank account with new owners.
If you had the opportunity to buy Google/Apple/Adobe for 50 cents on the dollar, why would you fire everyone? It makes no sense, they are all extremely profitable companies.
The sensible thing to do in these types of circumstances is to pay the settlement using newly issued shares in the company. That dilutes the interest of all the existing shareholders (effectively the money comes out of their pockets because the price per share goes down) but it causes no damage to the company's operations.
Don'd do the crime if you can't do the time, etc.