too big to fail – a modest proposal for corporate responsibility

i like profit as much as the next money-grubbing capitalist… why shouldn’t i be able to charge a zillion dollars if that’s what the market will bear? fortunately, most of the work i do does not impact large ecosystems, or require huge infusions of taxpayer dollars. rather than discuss whether there is anyone in bp management who still deserves to have a job (or keep their salary), i propose the following:

companies get to charge whatever they want for their services; they get to make insane profits, and their executives get to be richer than god. if what they do, however, goes wrong… defined as negatively impacting the environment, taxpayers, or anyone who was minding their own business before the company came along but now has to deal with the after effects of the company’s actions, every executive on the senior staff, and the top three majority stakeholders in said company have to return the last three years of salaries and/or profits, in the form of a fund to be used to attempt to right the wrong; if there’s any money left over, it can be applied to fixing other such cases. in addition, any executives not sent to prison for their actions will be required to spend a minimum of one year volunteering for a social or humanitarian organization.

it seems equitable to me, and well worth the risk for those big payouts… for any moral person.