I think a lot of people would say that we've been in that era for a while.

Companies can hire big legal departments to help them avoid accountability to the letter and spirit of various laws. The state can also use its prosecutorial discretion or selectivity in civil cases brought by attorneys general to deprioritize accountability for companies. Contributing to that last point, companies contribute campaign funds and tax base, and they lobby governments as well, and may expect preferential treatment based on all of that.

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jordanb 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The previous era was "it would be destabilizing to hold this company accountable". This was described in the book The Chickenshit Club

The new era of unaccountability just has a different rationale

Another interesting thing is they don't have to use low level employees as accountability sinks anymore (ex: Wells Fargo). They've managed to automate the accountability sink!

	▲	asveikau 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't think I heard about that book; I would think my media diet and bubble would have alerted me. I looked it up and it came out a few weeks before one of my kids was born, so being busy back then would probably explain it. I will add it to my list. Thanks.

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cm11 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd go further. Companies can hire minimal legal departments and largely avoid accountability, at least when they're not going against companies with large departments. Because there's nobody there to listen to your case or to enforce the laws if there are, they just say no or ignore.