General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

The real solution is to have income based fines.

That is its own can of worms.  Yeah, Finland has it, but they, too, have been gradually reducing its impact.

In any case, if a speeding (or whatever) fine is $500, practically everyone will feel the pain.  And a low-income person can get the fine reduced.  (The reduced fine option doesn't exist in Finland.)

I'm confused, if Finland has income rated fines, then clearly a low-income person gets a reduced fine, it's just automatic.

It definitely is its own can of worms, but only because I think people misunderstand money.

As for a $500 dollar fine it definitely doesn't make the same impact on everyone.  For a well paid tech worker, a $500 dollar fine would be a bad day, but it wouldn't really practically impact anything they do.  A lower income individual but someone who's not a "low-income" person, they're going to feel some pain, they might forego a dinner out, or at the very least see an impact in their retirement savings.  For a CEO of a big company, they probably spend more on haircuts in a month, they'll barely care about a $500 dollar fine.