system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Companies should be fines the amount they make from breaking the law, instead of a standard amount.

When a company does something like dump chemicals in the ground because it’s cheaper than disposing of them properly, they’ll make tons of money from it. I don’t blame companies for this- their goal is to make as much money as they can while spending as little as they can. If they get caught, the punishment is usually a fine, as opposed to some form of incarceration. This fine can be much less than the amount the company made breaking the law. Often, the explanation I see for why a company will do this not just once, but again and again is because they make more than the fee costs. Why shouldn’t we charge them the amount they made?

Edit: A word.
gpt
This system would still incentivize breaking the law. If they get away with it, they make a profit. If they're caught, they pay back the profit but still break even. So there's no cost to rolling the dice.

Really the only way to effectively disincentivize the illegal conduct is to fine them much more than they profited from it. You have to make the expected return on breaking the law negative.