Cheating culture has become normalized in society. So has lying. People seem to think it's the easy way out of every problem, and it has become an accepted part of how people go about doing their business. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in corporations who are supposed to provide a good or service. Many companies start out with good service and good intentions, but when they get bigger they're either bought by a company with no ethical standards, or they become a company with no ethical standards.
I could list multiple examples of heinous behaviour from corporate entities, who simply do not care how much their actions hurt people. They're too large to give a damn about one angry customer, or even a hundred. The only time anything changes is when there's a class action lawsuit against them, but generally they settle so they don't have to fix anything. They pay a nominal fee to make the nuisance go away, and don't bother to change a single thing they do if there's no court order to do so.
Take Boeing, for example. They killed 346 people. They are responsible for their murders because they lied to regulators about the software in the 737 Max 8 jet. They deliberately misled FAA regulators so their plane would pass inspections and be cleared to fly. Two planes went down, killing hundreds. Imagine the horror of the pilots when the computer took control of the plane, forcing the nose down, and there was nothing the pilots could do to avert the tragedy. They were killed by a computer glitch that was hidden by Boeing. They knew there was a problem, so they lied. And many people died.
Yet, not a single person went to jail. Hundreds murdered, no jail sentences. The company settled.
Now those planes are back in the air, and I don't care how 'rigorous' their testing was; I will never fly on any Boeing plane again. None of them can be trusted with my safety, and I would not give Boeing the financial recompense. There were no consequences for the people who lied and killed hundreds of customers. The company paid money in a settlement, but the people who lied weren't punished whatsoever. This is a major legal and ethical failure - not just on the part of the Boeing executives who chose to lie to the FAA, but also on the part of every government that's still allowing Boeing any air space. Boeing should have been permanently barred from creating passenger planes after proving they could not be trusted with the safety of human beings. Alternatively, they could sacrifice everyone who had a hand in making such a heinous decision, by allowing them to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
How, exactly, are we to trust any company that lies so egregiously that they don't care about risking human lives? It's not the plane that's the issue now...it's the ethics of the executives involved. They will literally allow people to die if it gets their plane cleared to fly. And what happens when they do it again? Since there were no consequences this time round, what kind of deterrent is in place to keep them from repeating their actions? Even if the people responsible were let go, there's no criminal record to keep them from being hired somewhere else, and they will be just as morally bankrupt there as they were at Boeing.
The thing is, this is NOT normal. This is not how our laws are set up, and it is not how our country was intended to run (I speak of Canada, specifically, but it applies to any nation with consumer protection laws). Citizens are supposed to be protected from corporate malfeasance and perfidy. When they steal from us, corporations are supposed to be held accountable. When they lie and people die, they're supposed to be held accountable. Paying a settlement, from what amounts to petty cash for an airline manufacturer, is not accountability. Jail terms, prison sentences...those are accountability. If you kill people through intentional actions, you should be going to jail. Manslaughter charges would have been fully appropriate for every person who chose to remain silent regarding the software on the Max 8.
Instead, the US government got a settlement. Has Canada received any of that money? What about the two other countries the planes took off from, and all the countries people lived in before they were negligently murdered? Only $500M goes to a trust for family members of the victims. And who, exactly, thinks a settlement replaces family members who have been killed?
