NYT: A Billionaire and a Nurse Shouldn’t Pay the Same Fine for Speeding

The New York Times ^ | 03/15/18 | Alec Schierenbeck

[Simon Green]

If Mark Zuckerberg and a janitor who works at Facebook’s headquarters each received a speeding ticket while driving home from work, they’d each owe the government the same amount of money. Mr. Zuckerberg wouldn’t bat an eye.

The janitor is another story.

For people living on the economic margins, even minor offenses can impose crushing financial obligations, trapping them in a cycle of debt and incarceration for nonpayment. In Ferguson, Mo., for example, a single $151 parking violation sent a black woman struggling with homelessness into a seven-year odyssey of court appearances, arrest warrants and jail time connected to her inability to pay.

Across America, one-size-fits-all fines are the norm, which I demonstrate in an article for the University of Chicago Law Review. Where judges do have wiggle room to choose the size of a fine, mandatory minimums and maximums often tie their hands. Some states even prohibit consideration of a person’s income. And when courts are allowed to take finances into account, they frequently fail to do so.

Other places have saner methods. Finland and Argentina, for example, have tailored fines to income for almost 100 years. The most common model, the “day fine,” scales sanctions to a person’s daily wage. A small offense like littering might cost a fraction of a day’s pay. A serious crime might swallow a month’s paycheck. Everyone pays the same proportion of their income.

For a justice system committed to treating like offenders alike, scaling fines to income is a matter of basic fairness. Making everyone pay the same sticker price is evenhanded on the surface, but only if you ignore the consequences of a fine on the life of the person paying. The flat fine threatens poor people with financial ruin while letting rich people break the law without meaningful repercussions.

[Simon Green]

Sheer idiocy, but illustrative of the "equal outcome" mindset of the Left.

[nwrep]

Unconstitutional.

[2banana]

Equity under the law?

[Pearls Before Swine]

Something like this was done in one of the Scandinavian countries. I seem to remember Norway, but maybe it was one of the others.

Some rather rich guy was hit with a speeding ticket that worked out to over $100K.

Ridiculous.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

No equality under the law for you!

[Reno89519]

They tried, maybe still do this, in some places in Europe. If I recall correctly the same ticket ranged from dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is simply another attempt at redistribution and is unconstitutional. Then again, maybe put those idiot ticket writing traffic cams on the roads into and out of the uber rich neighborhoods?

[21twelve]

I believe in some places in Europe it is like this - Sweden perhaps?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/multimillionaire-faces-130-000-speeding-ticket-article-1.1486072

I was close. The guy is a Swedish millionaire - but caught speeding in Finland which has wealth-based fines. $130,000 speeding ticket!

[Mom MD]

Because my 6 figure a year tax bill isn’t enough already. Now they want me to pay through the nose for a speeding ticket? It truly doesnt pay to try to get ahead and make something of yourself

[Mears]

And the rich should pay $150.00 for a loaf of bread and the janitor should pay $.50.

These people are NUTS !!!!!

.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Why should a millionaire Wall Street hedge fund manager pay the same as a subway strap hanger for a copy of the NYT?

[Architect of Avalon]

This is making a case for having White Men pay a lot and every other group pay very little.

[Spok]

So much for equal protection under the law. Next: should women with big racks pay the same as a woman with buck teeth? Give judges discretion and there’ll be no limit to silliness.

[Spok]

So much for equal protection under the law. Next: should women with big racks pay the same as a woman with buck teeth? Give judges discretion and there’ll be no limit to silliness.

[Zhang Fei]

Some rather rich guy was hit with a speeding ticket that worked out to over $100K.

---

Productive people don’t have to put up with persecution. They can easily move elsewhere. Notice how Nokia is basically waiting for death. Scandinavian apparatchiks understand everything about killing the golden goose. I wonder what happens when these geese fly away, and all they have left are worthless Muslim con artists and religious fanatics they’ve imported with reckless abandon.

[eastforker]

Why have traffic fines at all? If they wanted equality, instead of a fine make the punishment either jail time or community service.

[yarddog]

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”: Karl Marx.

[Eddie01]

The nurse should pay more.

She knew she couldn’t afford the ticket, but challenged Law Enforcement anyway.

[piasa]

This makes no sense- it’s like charging a guy $11,000 for a quarter pounder and fries just because he has more money.

Using this logic, if a poor guy murders a rich gal, he’d get a $10 fine, but if a rich guy does it he’s get the death penalty.

Either way she’s the same corpse.

[fella]

Equality before the law, IS the American dream.

[Intolerant in NJ]

For a justice system committed to treating like offenders alike, scaling fines to income is a matter of basic fairness...maybe in the world you live in, Alec, but not in this one - in the US, we say that all people are equal under the law - regardless of sex, class, race or even wealth - the punishment is set according to the crime, and not the status of the individual (except of course Democrats, who are never guilty of anything to begin with) - in terms you might better understand, you do the crime, you do the time, no matter how little money you have......