People should be held accountable for their actions

By Staff
July 14, 2002
Greed has been an unfortunate fact of American corporate life since this country's very beginnings, but even today amid all the scandals and distrust, Congress must be careful not to strangle entrepreneurship and innovation with excessive regulation. Corporations are made up of people and the idea of holding people accountable for their actions should be the guiding light in congressional reform efforts.
In other words, Congress should avoid passing new laws that excessively punish a corporation when the people in it or associated with it are at fault. A corporation can't go to jail for violating the law so it is awfully tempting to levy huge fines and fees that are paid from corporate coffers. People convicted of corporate crimes can go to jail and that's about as close as Congress can get to legislating morality.
As Congress seeks to reform the corporate code, it must focus on balancing the twin attributes of truth and accountability with the real value of corporate America  creating jobs and new wealth for all sorts of folks who honestly desire a higher quality of life.