The amount of crime faced by businesses today, has increased exponentially over the last few years, and in particular since COVID. The reasons for this state of affairs is basically down to two external factors.
The first factor relates to the costs that have been added by governments, bureaucrats and the courts to a businesses.
The reasons these costs are added are for a multitude of reasons and based on desires to protect “innocent people” from price gouging and immoral business behaviour. The truth is that many of these “innocent people” are not so innocent. The reality is that many businesses are incorrectly labelled with negative descriptions by do-gooders, and parties which are trying to avoid their own responsibilities.
In regards to business price gauging, it would be naïve to suggest that it doesn’t go on in certain industries and companies. However, the increased cost of government taxes, many of which are inappropriate in these difficult times, plus excessive union demands, which are at times also supported by government rhetoric, impact all businesses negatively. Unfortunately, the costs of these increases rarely seems to be acknowledged within the same context as price gouging.
When we review the actions of the courts, currently they are underfunded and do not seem fit for purpose when it comes to dealing with helping business protect their rights. For instance, shoplifting now appears to be regarded as a victimless crime and often the courts cannot quickly hear the cases of arrested shoplifters. When the shoplifter finally does go to court and is convicted, often having committed other shoplifting offences, the penalties are perceived to be inappropriately light, and nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
As for the mediation process, it was designed to try and reduce the costs of, and to avoid further legal action. When one party has no desire to participate fairly in the process, it just leads to a waste of time and money. Consequently, innocent businesses are left to incur additional time delays and costs in these situations. The fact is, it is often the defenders which are using the mediation process as another opportunity to delay and avoid being penalised.
Probably, the worst part of taking legal action for the business community, is that even if a business wins their case, the courts seem to have no responsibility or power to force the losing party to pay up.
As has been explained time and time again, penalties for acting illegally or inappropriately, need to be enforced as soon as possible after being caught out. Any delay usually results in the value of the deterrent factor part of the penalty being minimised.
A reference in the article shown above, offers a solution where “… a European system where judges with expertise in areas such as cyber or sex crimes are allocated specialist cases.” In Australia, perhaps this system could be created where judges have an expertise regarding business factors. This change in the courts is likely to lead to more speedy trials, and allocation of appropriate penalties to fit the situation, prompt and more effective restitution for businesses which have suffered loss, etc.
The second factor on why crime is increasing is the changing face of responsibility and rights of the general public in the non-commercial world. Many people now think they are entitled to special treatment and by claiming some special right, avoid their own responsibilities. It now appears this situation also applies in the business world, despite the offending party claiming to understand their responsibilities when signing commercial contracts.
The above change of behaviour is explained by criminology professionals who explain that the behaviour learnt in the private and consumer community, in time becomes the norm in the business world. As such, we now have the entitlement community who often refuse to accept their commercial and contractual obligations and try to refer their right to ignore their own responsibilities.
The outcome for a business as a result in these changes, now means that they can take legal action. Unfortunately, such action rarely achieves a positive outcome for the business when seeking retribution and compensation.
At the end of the day, the two above mentioned factors, will in time, cause wise businesspeople to consider the way they need to operate to achieve a positive and profitable business outcome. For instance, the result may be to refuse or restrict offering credit as has been seen in the consumer environment. The outcome of these changes may then impact negatively on society as a whole with unintended consequences.
We can already see some of these negative factors evident in Australia throughout many areas. For instance, crime and fraud are increasing in all its forms, there is a lack of rental properties available for quality renters, let alone the disadvantaged, plus businesspeople finding they cannot make a profit, may employ fewer employees, etc.
Worse still, if businesspeople cannot see a way to make a profit, the wiser ones will close their business(s) down, and then all of society losses.
Reference article link -
I don’t often recommend an article for reading however I do recommend this article is worth reading.
Note, I could not find a link to the above article. I suspect the following article may contain similar information and refer to the link below for the Naked City article A justice system in crisis, but does anyone care? Dated 23/3/2024
Want to know more about this topic, contact Kim at kim@creditmatters.com.au, or on Mobile 0411 649 261. Alternatively, have a look at what we offer via our website at www.creditmatters.com.au
