This story should be of concern to us all, as it represents “experimental law”, that could come back to bite us all.
A guiding principle of the law is equality before the law. Most of us are familiar with how nasty the law can be if it is oppressive to one group of people, because of who they are. In past there have been many groups who have been persecuted this way—and the end result is always bad.
But governments that used to persecute the poor are now having the idea of persecuting the wealthy. And since there are not that many wealthy people, if it works, they will turn on the middle classes.
How would you feel if a minimum wage worker got a $10 speeding ticket, but because you have a good job, you have to pay $500, even though you both were going the same speed?
And no reason that this is just limited to speeding, or cars. How would you like to be punished more, just because government thinks “you can afford to pay more”?
It already has. Punishing success happens every day in America in the form of over-taxing the 'rich'. What's worse is, the government gets to decide who qualifies as 'rich'.
Fining a rich person and a poor person $200 for the exact same crime is not equality before the law, the poor person gets punished more heavily. Giving a rich person the same speeding fine as someone on a lower or ordinary income is like giving a rich person a license to flout the law for what is for them a chump change fee... A fine for the same crime should be proportional to the wealth of the individual. It is just commonsense as far as I’m concerned...