Or, you know - VW was in the news in a major way for a certain little issue of fudging their emissions testing [1] and is expected to incur costs of US$18.3 billion associated with them [2], in the largest automotive settlement in history. At least one reader of HN (me) finds it interesting to see how this affects the company in terms of profits, sales, and jobs, and to understand the effects on the broader automotive market.
So, VW fudged the numbers on an arbitrary emissions limit in a market sector (diesel passenger cars in the USA) that is so tiny it is environmentally inconsequential, and now 30K people are losing their jobs?
If you ask me, the penalty is entirely out of proportion to the offense.
First, the penalty was a recall of the affected cars. About eleven million of them, in many countries, not just the US. This is almost exactly the definition of "proportional". Second read the article - they're not doing layoffs. Third, don't complain to me. I was simply pointing out why the article was interesting.
