Shareholders should share the penalties for corporate malfeasance
To the editor:
It is time to reconsider the nature of the beast, the corporation.
We have two excellent examples in the current news: Boeing and Monsanto/Bayer, with the liability of Boeing almost unimaginable over multiple paths and that of Monsanto taking off and rapidly expanding from a launch of $2 billion!!!
These civil liabilities should in the future NOT be met just from the reserves of the corporation, but should be passed down proportionately to the shareholders.
What is more, when criminal acts are concerned (as is likely with Boeing and possibly with Monsanto), those penalties should also be borne proportionately by the shareholders.
It can no longer be deemed acceptable for shareholders to look down benignly and haughtily upon the acts of Corporate Governance, feeling the pain when these acts are uncovered only distantly if at all, and then only in the wallet.
Allen N. Wollscheidt
Cape Coral