We regularly learn about the “Justice” department, the “environmental Protection Agency”, and the “Security and Exchange Commission” fining corporations for conduct amounting to fraud, intentional pollution, and a host of things rising to the level of criminal conduct. In all of these settlements, the corporation agrees to pay what sounds like a large fine and admits no wrongdoing.
These settlements, like basically everything done by governments, are nothing more than political theater designed to convince the delusional that some degree of justice applies to corporate criminality. But anyone who really considers the settlements for a few seconds should be able to easily figure out the problem.
If the corporations agree to the settlement, the fine is something they can easily pay. So, for what amounts to pennies of value to the corporations, the government allows them to admit no wrongdoing, doesn’t press charges against either the corporations or the individuals responsible for the crime, and conducts no investigation into additional criminal conduct. In most cases, no corporate criminal is ever deposed. In most cases, very few documents are turned over. Simply put, the corporations, in exchange for an amount of money they willingly agreed to pay, purchase their way out of any liability.
In comparison, there are people living in poverty, most often people of color, stuck in jail even though no guilt has been established because they can’t pay a few thousand dollars in bail. In America, poor people rot in jail because they can’t afford to get out of jail. In America, Corporations literally pay their way out of criminal prosecution for the corporations and their boards, executives, and employees.
On one hand, a black man suspected of holding a small amount of marijuana can spend months in jail without facing trial because he can’t afford bail. On the other hand, banks that deliberately defraud hundreds-of-thousands of people of their homes and life savings can agree to pay a fine they are comfortable with to avoid all liability.
The reality that many people know these scenarios are true and that many of those people still believe America isn’t a corrupt, racist oligarchy is strong evidence of how easily most people can be manipulated to believing what the corporate masters want them believing.