the.com/liability
the word lawyers whisper to make grown corporations check their bank balance and sweat.
means A legal or financial obligation or debt for which you're responsible, or more broadly, anything (or anyone) that creates risk and works against you rather than for you.
from From the verb 'to be liable,' which came through Anglo-French 'lier,' to bind, from Latin 'ligare,' to tie or fasten — the same root that binds 'ligament,' 'oblige,' and 'ally.' The idea is delightfully literal: a liability is something you are tied to, bound to answer for. The '-ability' suffix turned 'liable' into a noun for the state of being so bound — an 18th-century legal coinage that hardened into accounting and corporate dread.
- latin root
- from ligare, to bind — literally being tied down
- limited version
- the LLC exists so failure can't eat your house
- accounting flip
- on a balance sheet, it's just owed money
- insurance empire
- entire industries exist to sell you off
- strict kind
- some blame sticks even when you did nothing wrong
tobacco litigation settlement — philip morris and other tobacco companies paid $206 billion to u.s. states starting in 1998
deepwater horizon oil spill — bp faced $20.8 billion in total liabilities for the 2010 gulf of mexico disaster
volkswagen dieselgate — vw paid $14.7 billion in fines and settlements for 2015 emissions fraud in the u.s.