A truly equitable Income based fine would involve fining people time instead of money. Require people who commit traffic violations to spend an 8 hour weekday shift in an orange safety vest directing traffic at a construction site. For the minimum wage worker in the USA, this time would cost about $50. For a CEO earning ten million dollars a year, this would cost about $27,500. Do not allow employers to pay finees for their time. This would have the added benefit of freeing up construction companies to spend more of their salary expenses on actual construction...
-- dbsousa, May 30 2003

Record breaking fine http://news.bbc.co..../europe/1759791.stm
Nokia boss fined €116,000. [oneoffdave, Oct 17 2004]

Now this is more inventive.

I recommend that speeding drivers could also be tasked to help people cross roads, preferably those that speed along themselves.
-- Aristotle, May 30 2003


Community service is a well-established form of punishment. I doubt that applying it to traffic offenses is original.
-- DrCurry, May 30 2003


Maybe the offender's salary and 50% of the daily wage of the worker position the offender replaces would go to the public roads agency or charity?
-- bristolz, May 30 2003


Sorry, I disagree.

The loss of 8 hours of work will impact a low-income worker much more than a CEO. The low-income worker would miss $50 because the only one working for him is himself. The CEO wouldn't lose a thing, because is salary is generated by the people he leads.
-- phoenix, May 30 2003


//The CEO wouldn't lose a thing, because is salary is generated by the people he leads.//
Along with the word *his*, you spelled *screws* wrong.
-- thumbwax, May 30 2003


Took me a drunken 30 seconds to work that one out, thumbwax, but it was worth it. I can go to bed happy now :)
-- sambwiches, May 30 2003


Phoenix says: "The low-income worker would miss $50 because the only one working for him is himself. The CEO wouldn't lose a thing, because is salary is generated by the people he leads."

To which I respond: Where I live, a moving violation runs $50 (US Dollars) or more.

The low income worker is equally put out by a $50 fine and an 8 hour time fine. The CEO is much more inconvenienced by an 8 hour time fine than a $50 fine, or even a $27500 fine. A traffic fine ought to sting, and you can't make a monetary fine sting a CEO.
-- dbsousa, Jun 03 2003


Actually, as far as I can tell, it's impossible to sting CEOs becasue thay have good lawyers. A good lawyer can get out of just about any traffic violation. It's just that it's usually cheaper to pay the fine than to pay the lawyer. If you make the punishment worse, they'll just use their lawyer more often.

So first fix the legal system.

My brother owned a '92 Toyota MR2, and the cops were always harassing him. They'd often pull out to follow him, even if he wasn't doing anything. They would pull him over for the smallest offense. He upgraded to an Acura NSX, and they don't seem to see him. The best theory we could come up with is that the police assume that someone driving an NSX has a good lawyer, so its not worth their time.

It's not fair, but how can you fix it?
-- scad mientist, Jun 03 2003


apparently in finland traffic fines are income related. So if you are rich, wooah those fines *seriously* sting!
-- Peter-NZ, Jul 06 2004


Here in the states, towns/cities use traffic violations as a form of taxation. Community service would be more desirable and just, but municipal goverment would loose money and would have to raise taxes to compensate. It seems either people are happy with speed limits being 15 miles-per-hour (~24 kilometers-per-hour) less than they should be, or the people that do care are too lazy to do anything about it.
-- ed, Nov 14 2005



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