throw everything in the book at them

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“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
Thomas Paine

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“We must hold to a rigid accountability those public servants who show unfaithfulness to the interests of the nation or inability to rise to the high level of the new demands upon our strength and our resources.”
Theodore Roosevelt

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Theranos and that Holmes woman.

Throw the entire book at her, everything in it, send her to jail. For a long time.

Hear me out.

There are a bunch of us who talk about creating a better business world. Our topics run the gamut – community, culture, autonomy, bla, bla, bla. Nowhere do I see us railing on the shit leaders who do shitty things and the consequences for their shitty behavior. Why does it matter? Well. If there are no consequences, what are we telling the next generation of workers?

That’s numero uno.

Second is if you like being a business person, like working, believe your job is in some form or fashion is a reflection of you, well, then you should want to hang anyone who depreciates your existence – and that is what they are doing.

Third. Theranos is a particularly egregious business case. It wasn’t just about defrauding investors and lying about the business, it was actually going to harm people. What the fuck. Pay a fine? Guilty of some money issues? Go fuck yourself. Throw the book at her, with everything. Not all egregious activity is created equal, hers is like a business spinal tap 12.

This isn’t just about her.

That WeWork douchebag? Yeah. He needs some consequences. He was only a business Spinal Tap 7, but he deserves some other consequences than a gazillion dollar buyout payday.

Zuckerberg? Well. He hasn’t broken any laws; he just makes business people look like to be successful you have to be a shitbag. I’d just slap him with the book you slammed Theranos Holmes with and suggest because Facebook is the largest country in the world when he does suffer some consequences his will be library-sized.

In general, I believe people who have money who have made their money by being a shitbag shouldn’t be able to walk away with a lot of money. Period. If you are worth 100 million dollars and pony up a 10 million dollar fine, well, you still have a good 90 million tucked away. That’s bullshit. Its bullshit because the person who has a million-dollar business and gets fucked by these people and loses everything has to start with scratch, zero, zilch, when they start again. Its nuts and its wrong.

So that’s why I want them to throw the book at her. Make her pay and not because I want to make her an example, but because she was a business shit who just didn’t fuck over investors and other businesses, she fucked with people’s live <not just their livelihoods>.

Lastly.

She should never be allowed to run a business again. I am not suggesting she can’t work, just not permitted to run a business. Maybe forever is too long, but say she can’t for 20 years. Why? She lost her business leadership card. Period. And you know what? I’d treat all these business shitbags the same way. Be a shit and lose your business card so maybe you have to “reskill” or whatever bullshit we suggest the ‘common worker’ has to do when they lose their job.

She’s a shit amongst other shit business people and they should all have the book thrown at them. business has to make accountability count because if we don’t, well, then there will be a shitload of business shots who don’t give a shit about being accountable. And that is not only bad for business, its bad for everyone.