44% of PROFITS, not gross income.
Which means that even if companies were actually charged for the mess they made, they would be operating in the black AND their profits would still be 66% of normal.
44% of PROFITS, not gross income.
Which means that even if companies were actually charged for the mess they made, they would be operating in the black AND their profits would still be 66% of normal.
I'll be that guy.. 56% of normal
Oh look here everyone, it's the math guy!
Probably got some fancy education like primary school.
So, they'd still be wildly profitable, then?
Huh.
'Wildly profitable' would not be enough to them.
'Extremely profitable' would not be enough to them.
'Insanely profitable' would not be enough to them.
Infinite growth is one hell of a drug.
See also: any other form of cancer.
Infinite growth, until you kill your host. In this case the host is the whole human population.
Honestly, the whole world.
Will it recover? Maybe. Life is resilient.
But we've already presided over a pretty quick mass extinction that is still ongoing.
The only time infinite growth would be possible is if we became a space faring species and colonized other planets. That would allow us to continue population growth.
Outside of that, infinite growth is impossible since there’s only so many people on this planet and even less who can afford their products.
Capitalism and infinite growth is a microcosm of an organisms drive for infinite growth, which is usually curtailed by all sorts of biological and evolutionsry processes. Like space limitations and scarcity of resources, and I'm trying to figure out what is different between the individuals that form these mega corps and the average organism.
I dunno. Is this a stupid train of thought?
Yeah it really drives home just how fucking cooked the situation is.
Sorry kids the biosphere is fucked and human society is an echo of what it once was but there were some rich people who didn't want to be slightly less rich than they already were.
Huh that's very reasonable actually. Generous even. Now let's see what they can pay workers.
As little as they can get away with. And then they'll brag about record profits.
Yeah, I was thinking… only of their profits? So they can afford to still make a shitload of money and not put out all that pollution?
I mean this is paying for damages, not fixing the pollution
I’d like to see a calculation for that. It seems expenses to be more careful would be comparable, but who knows.
So, 44% of their profits are in fact 100% of our futures? That money didn't come from nowhere. All of us will pay that debt. Reporting needs to start reflecting that, and legislation needs to be enacted to get restitution. Until then, it's all toothless.
So what are we waiting for? Fuck em
Oh no not 44% of profits! Won't somebody please think of the margins!
Sounds like a win win
Boo fuckin' hoo. Pay up, shitbags.
So 44% of corporate profits are subsidized by the fact they don’t have to pay for waste disposal.
Oh no, not 44% of the extra money that goes into the pockets of already obscenely wealthy people
So in other words, they can afford to pay damages for it. Make them pay!
Oh shit what will I do if a couple ceos don't get paid hundreds of millions of dollars?? Won't someone think of the billionaires and their profit margins???
Lol every single cent of profit above 250 million should be taken from them and that's being generous
Narrator: ... and so they never did and also got away with it.
Even with the fine, their huge profits hardly change. This shows that the penalty isn't enough to discourage pollution. Stronger actions are necessary to make companies responsible.
So it means we could start saving the world if corporations let go of less than half of their profits?
Fossil fuels are the main actors in this. Corporations can only use the energy we provide them with.
Fossil fuel producers will never pay damages for climate change due to political donations. You may get the odd instance now and again, where there is selective scapegoating and that will be that. The tobacco industry (AFAIK) has never paid for the damages they have caused. They poured billions into politics and offset the argument against them for decades. Fossil fuel companies are doing exactly the same thing.
So rather than finger point towards specific actors, we should be sorting our political systems out. Political donations need to be banned. Campaigns should only be allowed to run through a single channel that is funded by the country. All other types of political advertising should be stopped. It is well known that the most successful campaigns have a price tag attached. Therefore it is easy to buy votes with campaigns. Moreso in a FPTP system. While we allow political donations we will never stop egregious profiteering without consequences.
And what if everyone were honest about what these "damages" should be?
Even this fantasy scenario of consequences is an incredibly low-balled Cost of Doing Business of murder.
It's one of the things that infuriates me when I hear refusals to address climate change: the "business as usual" way of doing things entails externalising countless costs, meaning comparing costs is an apples-and-oranges endeavour.
Yes please!
They would still be insanely wealthy, even with 44% less profit.
It's called internalizing the externalities, and desperately needs to happen.
Who gets paid the damages? Countries that will just keep subsidising these industries to the detriment of everyone?
Corporate pollution and your pollution are the same thing
Say there is a manufactured necessity. One cannot reasonably make it themselves or go without it. The manufacturer chooses to skimp on pollution controls or illegally dump so that the owners can make more money. How is that my fault?
big oil literally destroyed public transit so we'd be dependent on their products. believe me, living without a car is hard and I'm lucky enough to make it work. and the situation is artificially created for the benefit of the oil and auto industries
Yep, I went without a car for several months in a large US city that theoretically is decent for public transit and my life became much more difficult. I was able to make it work, but it has seemed barely sustainable. Now I live somewhere (not by choice really) that is completely impossible without a car/delivery... unless I spend hours a day walking, which would be very hazardous due to everyone else's cars.
I haven't read the article, but it sounds fair that they should pay for it. Fuck em.
But don't forget, the climate crisis is a hoax, but if it isn't then it's your fault for not recycling hard enough
Good.
Here's a simple idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polluter_pays_principle
Speaking from experience, it can also make teens more responsible with alcohol if they know who will have to clean up in case of overdoing.
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
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