RE: Midrange Computing Closed

Hi Neil - Thanks for the thoughtful response. I've got some comments 
embedded below.

At 07/30/2001 07:49 PM -0400, you wrote:
>Re your point #3
>Sara Lee didn't just get off with a $200,000 fine.
>
>They  recalled 35,000,000 pounds of meat from sale once the source of the
>outbreak was identified.
>There was no evidence found that they knowingly distributed tainted meat,
>or of any attempted coverup.
>They agreed to spend $3,000,000 on food safety and microbiology research
>at Michigan State University.
>They spent $25,000,000 upgrading the plant that was identified as the
>source of the contamination, started a new listeria testing system and
>installed prototype equipment to kill bacteria.
>They also settled 15 individual lawsuits with the seriously injured
>victims or their relatives, and settled a class action suit on behalf of
>those who fell ill (but recovered) where each person received from $250 to
>$50,000 (plus medical expenses).

There's another take on the story at 
<http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0726-04.htm>. I'll let those who read 
this decide if Sara Lee is criminal or not.

BTW, I could have sited other examples. This was just the most recent one 
that I'd read about.

>What would you have proposed - closing down Sara Lee and putting thousands
>of employees out of work ?
>Who would that have benefitted ?

Here are some thoughts by Nader on revoking corporate charters: 
<http://www.sfbg.com/nader/31.html>. Also, Nader supports changing the law 
to create a national corporate charter. Here are his words:"If we had a 
national charter, we could say for example that in addition to a 
corporation going into bankruptcy for not paying its creditors, it can go 
into environmental bankruptcy for contaminating and poisoning the community 
in which it's in through pollution. And if it does go into bankruptcy, that 
doesn't mean the company closes down and unemploys the workers, it means 
that the leadership changes. It means that there's a trustee in the 
environmental bankruptcy appointed by a judge, a new board of directors, 
and a new ethic to not inflict pollution violence on thousands or millions 
of innocent people -- whether for air or water or food contamination."

Bottom line: you don't have to shut the corporation down to punish it, but 
there would be REAL punishment.

  ... Chuck

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