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BBC News - Swede faces world-record $1m speeding penalty
This driver faces a possible million dollar fine for his speeding. This country bases the fine on the speed and income of the driver. Doing it this way makes it a financial punishment to an individual no matter what their net worth.
It's worth mentioning that the ticket will be for speeding in Switzerland, not Sweden.
And frankly, I quite like that system of traffic tickets, it burns equally for everyone.
Are you're saying that if you're rich, you should have to pay more for the same infraction than a less wealthy person? What about other products or services? If you can afford to, should you have to pay more?
There is in theory some merit to this, the idea that a penalty should affect everybody equally. Clearly, the person who makes $1 million per year will be less disturbed about a $250 fine for speeding than a person who makes $30,000 per year.
But there are a couple of problems. One is that it is a nightmare to implement. Just the checking and verification of income would be a big problem.
Also, even if fines are the same, the punishment doesn't affect everybody equally anymore. I love to drive fast and have a high threshold for a fine that would really bother me. There are others of similar income to me who might be more affected by a much lower fine. It's a personality thing. There are people who shrink away from doing something just from the possibility of punishment, while others can be punished over and over and will still keep doing it. So I think the theory works better than reality.
I find it hard to justify a $1 million fine for speeding, unless there was a fatality involved.
Now, that would be worth a municipal investment in traffic cameras. Make sure you put all the cameras in areas where the rich people live. Oh oh. Socialism.
The DMV knows the KBB value of your car. The fines could be apportioned according the car's value. Not very many rich people would drive a beater just for the purpose of lowering their fines, so it would be a simple calculation that would work in nearly all cases. There could be a fine-forumula multiple printed right on the registration certificate. In some states, there already is, because license fees are based on a sliding scale of value.
But then you'd have the police profiling drivers, and a cop could make his quota just by pulling over one Jaguar or Range Rover. Just hypothetical---everybody knows there is no quota, and everybody knows that no cop would ever profile anyone, and everybody knows that the reason for traffic patrols is safety, not revenue.
Are you're saying that if you're rich, you should have to pay more for the same infraction than a less wealthy person? What about other products or services? If you can afford to, should you have to pay more?
Sounds like an Obama plan.
What I'm saying, and what the law intends to do is for the fine to equally affect someone making a million bucks a year as someone who makes $16k, if the fine is a uniform $250 or whichever number, it won't.
Not to say this version isn't flawed as well, but it's certainly better than the "If you're poor we'll poop all over you but rich people go right ahead, it's my pleasure" strategy used elsewhere.
Yes, this particular fine is especially high, but remember it's not actually given yet, he simply might get it, the actual fine will be decided by a judge.
Another couple of things worth remembering is that the man was doing 180 mph, nigh on 110 mph over the posted speed limit. If you plan on doing such a thing, you should expect serious repercussions if you're caught. He's damn lucky he's not thrown in jail, he would look at 6 months at least here in Norway.
The second thing to remember is that speeding tickets in western Europe tends to be higher than their American equivalent either way, and though this is extreme, it's not as shocking for us as it likely is for you.
To sum up: Yes, I think it's a good thing that the wealthy aren't "allowed" to do exactly as they wish, simply because it has no relevant repercussion for them, a ticket this magnitude is more likely to have the same effect as a $1000 ticket has on someone with my income, and if it doesn't, at least he's had to pay up for his violation.
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