I think this is an example of what are normally externalities being arbitrarily imposed on an individual though.
There are so many things companies and others do that impose costs on others that singling out only those which meet a threshold that make it worth taking to court creates a discontinuity in outcomes which makes it seem punitive here.
I also hope the fine here is proportional to his ability to pay. Bankrupting poor people for mistakes in the outdoors, where the same penalty is expensive but manageable for the rich, also doesn't seem just.
Best take right here. Yeah, the guy was an idiot, but was he Norfolk Southern criminal? Ad will Norfolk Southern go bankrupt from poisoning a town? Nope. What about Wells Fargo? I cold go on and on.
The government cares more about corporations than people. We live in a corpocracy, not a democracy.
Wildfires are also naturally occurring and rely on a supply of dried fuel to burn. This dumbass starting a fire means that we skip a naturally occurring one because this fire consumed the fuel. It's not exactly that cut and dry but the point is it's not all cost.
“Makes it seem punitive” um… are you concerned about that? It’s the whole point to be punitive. And there are supposed to be life altering consequences for actions we take.
Certainly there are problems with corporations not bearing the costs of the problems / issues they create. But that means we need better laws to capture that, not that this guy was unjustly punished.
$300,000 for the average person, isn’t a lesson. It’s an albatross around their neck that will be their for perhaps their whole life and cause huge problems for at the very least decades. May as well make it $300,000,000. I don’t think of that as “justice” so much as “justice porn” so those of us who weren’t fined $300,000 can look and say, “What a great job the system did.”
Right but alternative is making people pay for stupidity of some randoms. I don't have problems with socialized healthcare, it's mostly not person's fault they happened to have worse health than others, but this is just compounded effect of multiple stupid decisions in a row
Most people (except Christian Bale) don't make a conscious decision to become overweight. As far as I know, there isn't even a consensus why people are getting bigger every decade.
How can you not, knowing how corporations literally spend billions of dollars a year to make sure people consume whatever unhealthy thing they are making this year? Like, yeah, it's my personal fault for drinking that can of coke, but let's not pretend that billions that Coca-Cola corporation spends on ads and marketing had absolutely nothing to do with it either.
> it's mostly not person's fault they happened to have worse health than others
Cigarettes come to mind. You’re fine with penalizing this guy $300,000 for doing something stupid and penalizing society hundreds of millions of dollars for the maliciousness of RJR Nabisco, Philip Morris, etc.
I think the question it's meant to make people consider is, "Is this action I'm about to take really the last resort to save my life?"
If it's truly "die vs. do this and live the rest of my life in debt," yeah. It's worth it to take on the debt.
But it'll force another level of creativity out of you before you decide the only way to save your life is to light a whole dead tree on fire and hope for the best.
I was actually making a comment that was meant not to be applied just to me but to make people consider huh, yeah if I was actually at the point of last resort that's got to be pretty extreme and I too would not be operating at peak efficiency therefore it would be best to start the process of saving my life before it was the last resort or I die, but evidently I have once again been too vague in my preferred communication style.
But the point is that you're finding out about this potential consequence now, from the safety of your own home.
It'll be hanging over you when you're out, as things get worse and worse. You'll start thinking of alternatives much earlier, because the potential of living the rest of your life in debt if you only find a destructive way to stay alive won't let you wait as long to be thinking about solutions.
Nobody's reading this article from a place where they're already at "light a forest fire or die" danger level. This only works as a deterrent and a cautionary tale because people are finding out about it before they're in dire trouble.
No you were not, you made a great point. Some people just want to do mob justice and punish people so harshly, that they can't even understand that if they were in that situation, they'd likely feel the same as you.
You likely won't be thinking creativity if you have mental limitations due to medical state. Heat injuries, dehydration, etc can cause mental impairment. My guess is that's why they are focusing so much on him creating his own emergency and focusing on inconsequential things like lack of first aid kits or flashlights - so they rule out a temporary insanity plea.
Bankruptcy is a feature of nearly all modern legal systems to avoid exactly this.
The point of bankruptcy is to allow you to give up all your possessions in return for being able to shed all debt. It's a simple trade, and lets you 'start afresh'.
And it's kinda an even better deal than it appears - you get to keep your knowledge, your friends and your qualifications - so in your 2nd start, you will probably achieve a much better trajectory than the first.
