Let’s Stop the Tax Break That Normalizes Corporate Criminality

When a business gets caught creating an epidemic of killer drugs, destroying our coastal fisheries, or renting out rat-infested apartments, that lawbreaker faces financial consequences. There are government fines, restitution payments to families when children die, remediation expenses to clean up our polluted land and waters, and compliance upgrade costs such as installing rat traps or pollution control devices.

These are the financial consequences that, in a just society, we use to punish and deter lawbreaking businesses in hopes that they will deter future criminal behavior. Break the law; get caught; pay the price, and then get rewarded with a ...