Income based fines.

Trade

Trade

Well-known Member
IMO fines are fundamentally discriminatory here in the U.S.

For a wealthy person a $500 fine for speed is chump change. They pay it and go on their merry way.

While for a poor person that may well take food off the table, put you behind on your rent, or cause you to have your power turned off.

I think we should follow the example of Finland.


https://www.theatlantic.com/busines...nd-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/
 

Trade said:
IMO fines are fundamentally discriminatory here in the U.S.

For a wealthy person a $500 fine for speed is chump change. They pay it and go on their merry way.

While for a poor person that may well take food off the table, put you behind on your rent, or cause you to have your power turned off.

I think we should follow the example of Finland.


https://www.theatlantic.com/busines...nd-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/
Click to expand...
Bet they have a lot of safe driving millionaires...lol.
 

In Austin, the major developers here consider the fines they rack up for tree ordinance violations as simply the cost of doing business. The small developers are driven to abandon properties under development, and are sometimes driven into bankruptcy, by those same fines. I strongly favor a scaled fines structure.
 
I like the concept of an income based fine, but how do you define "income". There are a million ways to get around that. For the rich, income does not always mean true wealth. And who is going to do all this financial paperwork for a $100 fine? Unfortunately, the rich have the privilege of affording fines, just as they have the privilege of affording bail, when others can't.
 
It's funny, but on the road to home, not far fom where I turn into my subdivision, there's a sign that says "Higher Fines Start Here". I've been wondering for a long time what that means. Now I'm really going to have to research that.
 
This is the case in the UK where fines for speeding are based on weekly income and severity of the offence. This is increased for things like persistent offending / previous crimes and reduced for things like first offence, person of good character etc..

Not sure that it's really fair as someone with a high income could still be in debt and one on low income could have a small fortune stashed away.
 
That's ridiculous, and confiscatory, and probably unconstitutional in this country to boot, but I can see how the class envy crowd would find it appealing. All those evil rich folks getting what's coming to them. Let's punish people for being successful. Tsk.
 
This sounds like an interesting way for Finland to increase its government income without a general increase in taxes. However, I wonder just how many wealthy "speeders" have been fined, vs. average income citizens....the income generated is probably not that much. If traffic "safety" is a concern in Finland, I would suspect that emphasis on drunk drivers and cell phone addicts would be more productive.
 
I agree with Tommy. Trying to enforce this sounds like a logistical nightmare. Just think of all the complexity we go through every year calculating our income taxes, and then think of having to do this for every parking ticket! šŸ˜²
 
But if we lower the fines for the poor then more crimes will be committed. What's next, the rich paying taxes?! The very thought is repulsive. šŸ‡
 
Fines in Pennsylvania are across the board. Parking tickets are usually 5 or 10 bucks. Moving violations carry their own fine and speeding is based on a flat fee, plus $2-5 for every so many miles over the speed limit. However, we also have add-onā€™s to pay for our prior no-fault insurance. We also have a ā€œFines Doubledā€ while in a safety corridor, which is an area that has been identified as a high accident area. All moving violations also carry points charged to the licensee. If you accumulate 6 points, you are going to traffic school.

When I patrolled the interstates and the Turnpike, I heard some really dandy excuses why people were speeding.
 

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