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[–] MinorLeakage 5 points 30 points 35 points (+35|-5) ago
It's sort of a bad analogy since they're all apparently free-loaders.
Though I always liked the idea of equitable speeding fines, etc. Say 2% of your last years taxable income, instead of a flat $300 sort of thing. My father couldn't give two shits about getting ticketed, whereas I'm eating pasta for a month if I get caught.
[–] [deleted] 4 points 19 points 23 points (+23|-4) ago
[–] [deleted] 5 points 11 points 16 points (+16|-5) ago
[–] Had ago
Speeding camera should be illegal to begin with as they do not stop the offense only punish it weeks later. And the fines are meant to be a deterrent. For me $300 sucks but it is not going to hurt really do I don't much care about getting caught speeding. If it were $1500 then I would not speed ever.
I do agree how it would change things though since our government is corrupt. I like the idea in principle, but in reality it would be abused so I think I agree that it should not happen.
[–] MinorLeakage ago (edited ago)
Well like you mentioned yourself, higher earners already pay a higher percentage of their income. That is unfair. Everyone should pay the same % tax, in my opinion. However, it should definitely be a % and not a flat $ value.
I'm suggesting the same flat % for everyone, which wouldn't be unfair, unlike income tax. It's not a further punishment, it's the SAME punishment.
The second part you mention, about targeting wealthy areas, actually would be a concern. You would have to find a way to make sure that money wasn't being put in to the police budget, or a politician's budget. But now that you mention it, it's probably already happening. It's probably much more likely a wealthier person would simply pay the fine. And likely a poorer person would do their 30 days in jail instead, thus costing the town/city/state even more $. Though, people in prison justify the need for police, so maybe just middle class folks will be left alone.
Anyways, it was meant to be more a comment on equity than on speeding specifically. Thanks for the reply though!
EDIT: missing word
[–] Gake_The_Cake 2 points -2 points 0 points (+0|-2) ago (edited ago)
The intent of fines is the emotional impact on the person in order to teach someone that what they're doing is wrong. If less than 1% of your income is absorbed by it you won't think twice about it- you'll just do it again. If 50% is taken you feel it desperately.
Your argument is utter bullshit. Fines are not taxes. You might be able to successfully argue that they shouldn't pay higher taxes, but don't be stupid and think for a second that fines are anything similar. They may as well not even fine them if your argument is to be accepted since they don't feel the punishment whatsoever.
Your structure of the argument reveals how incredibly ineffective non-scaling fines actually is since it doesn't even occur to you in your argument that you're not even supposed to be fined whatsoever. EVER. If you are fined for something then you're a horrible fucking person who deserves to struggle for a time. Fines are awarded to CRIMINALS not every rich person should get fined. In fact, in a perfect society, no-one would ever get fined because they're doing the right thing.
If they rich want to avoid paying high fines then maybe they should follow the fucking law like everyone else. This is how you tell you have a corrupt as shit society when the rich just want to go on breaking the law by simply dolling out a "allow me to do more shit" tax.
[–] WarGy 1 point 4 points 5 points (+5|-1) ago
That's completely ignoring what a speeding fine is though. Speeding fines don't make anyone safer, the only thing they do is provide funding to the local police department. The only thing equitable speeding fines would cause is the police to give more tickets to people in expensive cars to get more money out of them.
[–] AlphaWookie 3 points 2 points 5 points (+5|-3) ago
Wrong, insurance companies study this you know because they have to pay up for accidents speeding fines reduce the overall number of traffic accidents, the severity of traffic accidents, and the number of fatalities from traffic accidents. So stop pulling shit out of your ass and come with sources next time faggot.
Source: https://economics.missouri.edu/working-papers/2011/wp1117_leedn.pdf
[–] N0really 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Wtf man, go get a better job you bum.
[–] MinorLeakage ago
I'm just on a tight budget, and it isn't coming out of my beer money, I can tell you that.
[–] MedicalMountainGoat 1 point 1 point 2 points (+2|-1) ago
Fuck that. 2% would be a ludicrous fine to pay for speeding these days, especially while speed limits are artificially lowered to ridiculous levels. The whole thing has become a racket to steal money from the people.
[–] MinorLeakage ago
Yeah I generally agree with you, I was just using speeding as an example.