Many critics of capitalism do not criticise capitalism itself, but rather "managerial capitalism", the fact that what happens is driven by managers' KPIs (ie capitalism is dictatorial) rather than "the market" (ie capitalism is democratic).

SMRT squeezes its customers not because it inherently wants to make a profit, but because their managers get fucked if the profit doesn't meet expectations. Although the fine could be passed on to customers, this is still a positive development because somebody high up in their ranks is being fucked for this incident.

Trackback from Who pays the fines? SMRT or Passengers?:

Instead of punishing them in terms of money, why not punish them in terms of numbers of years which they cannot apply fare hike?...

Who gives a shit anyway?

Let's do the calculations. You got 1M rides a day (probably more). Then the fare is $1 (probably more). And your profit margin is 10%. Then you will make $100000 a day. So you will take 4 days to recoup the loss.

I don't want to sound like Mrs Goh Chok Tong but $400000 is peanuts.

i dont think there is anyone called Mrs Goh Chok Tong.