The Mormon Church is being fined 5 million because it hid a 32 billion dollar investment fund. This was not accidental. The SEC proved that both the investment firm and church went to great lengths to knowingly hide these assets. For the folks playing along at home, that’s a fine of 0.016% on the investment. Imagine lying on your taxes and you hid an extra $100K offshore and the IRS said “No sweat, pay us $15.63.” If there are no other repercussions, that’s not a fine, that’s encouragement.

@monkeyninja

David Graeber got an economist to admit that he was not aware of single case where a company was fined more than the profit it turned breaking the law. He summarized this as the government saying: "Do all the crime you want, but if we catch you, you have to give us a cut."

@dogfox @monkeyninja and so the message is heard loud and clear. It is not wrong to hurt people, only to fail to make a profit while doing so.