How exactly would you break up Wells Fargo into a subset of businesses that had a chance of surviving on their own?

This is especially bad for a bank. Customers would freak out and leave. I can't find a single historical example of a bank breakup that didn't result in the destruction of the entire business.

Customers freaking out and leaving would be awesome.

Destruction of jobs and services != justice.

It's not that they deserve to lose their jobs. There were probably lots of honest people working at Theranos! That's not a good reason to have kept Theranos around, though.

Like, asbestos miners losing their jobs was a necessary result of shutting down the asbestos industry. It's not that it's fair, but it's not a reason to keep mining asbestos. Obviously ideally Wells Fargo could be reformed somehow, but the "corporate death penalty"[0] exists for a reason!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_dissolution

> Destruction of jobs and services != justice.

But it does send a message to the broader industry. Sometimes a few rouge cancer cells can kill the entire host. And this is the second time around for them.

The availability of jobs should be a symptom of good business, not an end goal that justifies the ongoing depravity of a business.