If you have seen Fight Club, you’ll probably remember this scene. Business formulas like this one sound so morbid when we’re reminded of the human loss that can come from faulty vehicle components or deep sea oil wells. Despite the terrors of criminal negligence, these kind of industrial “accidents” happen all the time. Every year there are news stories saturating our media with images of oil spills, or talking heads yelling at each other over automobile recalls. But these things would never impact us, right? It seems it’s always somebody else suffering the consequences. So we keep letting it happen.

In 2010, the infamous BP Oil Spill leaked 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and 11 workers died in oil rig’s the explosion. BP quickly set aside a $20 billion fund to cover the costs of liabilities to families impacted by the spill. On their part, it was a good idea to set aside such a big number early on—it sounds impressive. But right now BP estimates that they will only end up paying $7.8 billion of those dollars by the time they are done going through the one million claims submitted to them.

It was just announced that BP would pay $4.5 billion, the biggest criminal fine in US history, to the federal government. This money is being divided amongst the SEC, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Academy of Sciences, and other government agencies.

At first I was enthused to hear this. The biggest fine in history? Sounds like the government has finally done what it’s supposed to do when corporations are criminally negligent. But then I looked up more of the numbers. In their third quarter this year, BP made $5.5 billion in profits—not revenue. That means BP made enough money in three months that the largest criminal fine in US history didn’t make them sink into the red.

While BP still has to settle with Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, I don’t think their payments will come anywhere close to their projected $38 billion expense from lawsuits and fines related to the spill.

The purpose of Federal fines and regulations should not be to put every corporation that messes up out of business. If that were the case, many BP workers would unfairly lose their jobs for the choices of just a few top executives. However, the reaction to BP’s spill shows that the government’s capability to prevent more acts of criminal negligence is too weak.

Unfortunately, more companies than we would like to know use that magic formula from Fight Club to decide which government regulations they should comply to. If the government-enforced costs from an oil spill are less than the costs of actually building, inspecting, and preparing for disasters corporations will continue to build flawed infrastructure.

It is difficult to suggest a way for the government to make an example of BP without completely grounding the company, but if the government shows weakness in cases like this then other companies will exploit the weakness of our fines. Maybe the government should crack down on corporate executives, instead of companies as a whole. If the government can prevent executives from using “golden parachutes” to escape the penalties incurred from negligence, then perhaps our corporations would learn to use the human formula of business instead of the profit formula.

Unfortunately, if you want to fight criminal negligence it is hard to take preventative measures. You can support candidates who claim they will crack down on illegal business practices, but it’s hard to be sure what they will really do or if this is only an empty campaign promise. My recommendation is to boycott companies that have failed to follow regulations. If you want companies like BP to start listening to the government you need take away their profit margins on your own. BP sells its gas to numerous independent gas stations, but Arco is owned by BP so I would suggest getting fuel elsewhere.