this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2026
104 points (96.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

41979 readers
1622 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world


7) No Hit-and-Run questions.
Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.


8) No Bots.
Posts or comments from bots, LLM's, AIs, Neural Networks, Transformers, or Marvin the Paranoid Android are not welcome in AskLemmy. Real humans only please.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

For example: private equity firms buying trailer parks and raising rents so high that people go bankrupt

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

No more externalized costs. Pollution? You pay the entire cleanup cost or straight to jail.

All companies employee owned not investor owned would be nice but for now - lowest paid employee no less than 1/4 the pay of highest paid employee, more than that considered financial fraud or extortion, straight to jail.

And oh my God, insurance companies - taking all the premiums, paying yourselves huge bonuses then going bankrupt, not paying claims, leaving the state then coming back as a different company, rinse and repeat? I cannot believe that doesn't break existing laws but that is our home insurance industry. Please put all of those guys in jail immediately and let us just all use a state run plan, it will be cheaper.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 hours ago

I would implement wealtg caps. Nobody van have a networth over 5 mullion. Any income over that goes 100% to taxes until they're below that limit again

Takes away the nasty incentives that come with allowing self enrichment without limits.

[–] Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Take away the concept of limited liability. Shareholders are responsible for the crimes the company they own commits.

This will create an insurance industry to protect shareholders and they would force companies to demonstrate compliance with regulations to keep premiums low.

If someone in the company committed fraud to deceive the owners then they can try to sue him. He can go to jail too if it's criminal.

Making it so owners are not responsible for the actions of the company that makes them money is why the system is broken.

Limited liability corporations were initially created for large public projects like bridges where the liability was too high to attract investors, but the public benefit was very large. Where is the public benefit now?

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 44 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Wage theft, as in any participant goes to jail, not just a fine and restitution from the company.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Enforcement of your law would eliminate most of the crime. And really change the demographics of prison populations.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Restitution should also be inversely proportional to the annual wages of the victims. The closer to the poverty line they are the higher the multiplier.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 13 points 1 day ago

Where can I vote for you?

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Love it. Employee steals from the company and goes to jail. Company steals from employee and just has to pay a fine. Always seemed like bullshit to me.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The fine for financial crimes needs to be in addition to whatever profit was made from the crime. If the punishment for a crime that gained $100 million is a $20 million fine, that's not a punishment that's just the cost of doing business.

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

The fine for financial crimes needs to be in addition to whatever profit was made from the crime.

The problem - the greater, potentially insurmountable problem - is... corruption and dishonesty.

If you use a term like "profit", then they'll find another way to move money around and categorize it as something else that doesn't qualify. Many huge companies already pay little to no taxes this way. If they can find ways to lower their tax burden, they can find ways around most things. It will not always happen, but given time I'm sure someone will innovate faster than law can keep up.

The end result will ultimately be auditors or auditing... which if not purely independent can be corrupted. This can come from the company, if they are hiring auditors or self reporting, by whatever authority is in charge of auditing, or by the powers that be starving the auditors of resources which is exactly what has happened to the IRS and US tax system.

[–] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Financial obesity is neurotoxic, an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

[–] DjangoFett@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Who needs more than, let's be excessively generous and say 500 million in total assets? That can be a really nice house, several nice cars, a boat, and a vacation home in place of your choosing. This asset valuation would then also include artwork and other such items of agreed-upon-societal-value. And if you swear you somehow need more, then youre just a miserable fuck who will never be happy without intensive therapy and even then I worry it wouldn't be enough.

[–] Prancingpotato@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Ok but don't include artwork in assets, these belong to museums and should be accessible to everyone.

[–] DjangoFett@lemmy.zip 0 points 7 hours ago

Van Gogh? Monet? Rembrandt?Most assuredly.

That piece you purchased directly from the artist at the gallery last month? That still has value even if it isn't in a museum.

I maintain my position.

[–] CheesyFingers@piefed.social 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] DjangoFett@lemmy.zip 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

That's a number I pulled from somewhere around thin air and my buttcheeks, so if you've got data behind any real numbers I'm in more with you.

[–] CheesyFingers@piefed.social 3 points 22 hours ago

So is mine lol

[–] Pratai@piefed.ca 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Me? Personally? If it were all up to me:

• The GOP is now classified as game.
• Hunting permits are first come first serve
• All data centers are to be converted to permit printing

[–] shittydwarf@piefed.ca 19 points 1 day ago (3 children)
[–] SupahRevs@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

I'd also like to see people trade commodities only if they have the space to store them or have made a claim that they are directly impacted by cost of future commodities. It makes no sense that a hedge fund should influence the price of goods they would never use.

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] shittydwarf@piefed.ca 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Here's a pretty good explanation

https://marketrealist.com/p/what-is-cellar-boxing-in-stocks/

But in short, they decide to destroy a particular stock. They sell shares that they don't have, and then when the stock reaches zero and is delisted, they do not have to provide the stocks that they sold but never had in the first place

[–] JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

Imagine you cut a pair of shorts out of a pair of pants, then you throw the shorts away and wear the remaining pant legs.

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Isn’t that already illegal? Just need to close the loopholes I think.

[–] shittydwarf@piefed.ca 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's happening constantly there's no enforcement. They have invented all sorts of mechanisms to continue the practice.

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Corporations and businesses now have jail time.

The leading body of the business are each individually arrested for the duration of a full financial audit of their activities to insure that they've followed the law and acted in good faith.

The business itself will be lead by an established committee of financial ethics officers until the sentence is fulfilled.

All net profits, dividends, and financial winfalls of the company are forfeited to the federal government for the duration of the sentence.

After the jail time is served, 80% of all aforementioned incomes are garnished to repay victims for damages.

Any other criminal activities found during audits and operations are to be prosecuted individually.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Owning one red cent above $999,999,999.99 immediately triggers arrest and jail time of not less than 3 years in a federal faculty, and a seizure of all property above that amount.

Or maybe if you accumulate more than that amount, all of your property is immediately seized. You get an award ceremony and bronze medal held in a local park. A bench gets a plaque with your name on it. And you are left penniless in the park to begin the game over again.

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 5 points 1 day ago

Like flipping over an odometer

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] Mr_Fish@lemmy.nz 6 points 1 day ago

If the only tool available is criminalization, that's not enough. Financial violence preys on the lack of a guarantee of needs being met, so the best option would be to make some way to guarantee that. But some options are:

Make a "business license" system. If at any point a business commits any financial crime, like monopolization, price gouging, financial violence, etc, all the upper leadership is immediately sacked, and they are barred from running any other business, with serious prison time as punishment for dodging this ban.

Be brutal on monopolies and anticompetitive practice. If a company we've gets more than 70% of the revenue of their sector in a year, some of the company is sold off at auction. If it's shown that the company was using anticompetitive practices, the leadership is immediately sacked, loses any business license, and gets prison time.

Any company that provides a needed good or service (eg. food, housing, energy, internet, transport) has a profit cap. All their accounting must be publicly available, and if the profit or any leader's income is too high (number to be decided), this counts as a financial crime.

[–] MantisToboggon@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (3 children)
[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The fuck am I sposed to do with all these squirlyfans accounts?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] leftist_lawyer@lemmy.today 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Having an MBA = Attempted fraud.

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I’m not opposed to having people who know how to run a business, but they should criminalize certain ways of running it. Any business practices that take advantage of workers or tax loopholes should be banned from teaching in business schools.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Private equity buying up something and running it to the ground to sell for parts.

I don’t think it’s possible to criminalize it nor do I think that it’s the worse thing out there, but I think it should be illegal

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This one really bugs me. I worked for a company that got bought out by private equity. They sold most of the real estate that the company owned to a company that the same private equity people owned, and then made the stores pay exorbitant rent for the property the used to own. Meanwhile, they sold pieces of the company until there was nothing left, and then closed all the stores. Thousands of people lost their livelihoods.

[–] SupahRevs@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Employees should be able to sue for future lost earnings. I'd like to see a court use prior financials as a basis then calculate how much employees would make for 30 years if management changed nothing.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 6 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately, standard playbook. Enraging

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

Every four years, people are asked to vote whether they like or dislike a bunch of randomly selected big companies

If the dislike is over 50%, the people in charge of that company are killed

Companies are not allowed to invest in advertisement, sponsor anyone, or purchase anything in the scope of improving their public image

This is a terrible solution, but i do not have the expertise or time to make laws that would fix capitalism

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Criminalize cops and prosecutors enforcing laws differentially based on the wealth of the suspects or victims.

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

I’d go one step further and eliminate qualified immunity. Give citizens the ability to bring charges against cops for violating any of their rights. If the cops can’t produce bodycam footage of the incident, it’s a default judgment against them.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Make it a legal requirement for any indefinite revokable license product on sale to be sold as "indefinitely licensing". Any term implying irevokable ownership (I.e. buying, purchasing) would be illegal to use.

It would wisen a lot of people up very quickly to what's essentially a long-play con being pulled on them constantly, especially as some games companies *cough* Sony *cough* are looking to force digital-only ecosystems.

... And if being forced to use that term makes the companies doing this squeemish, well they could always just stop selling revokable licenses.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because everyone knows the real money is in trailer parks?

Anyway my suggestion is: Any donation to any politicians campaigning must be displayed on their suit, just like nascar drivers show their sponsors so must politicians.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›