General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

You're missing the point.  I have no sympathy for people who drive dangerously either, but I do have sympathy for people who receive an effectively harsher punishment for the same offence simply because they are less wealthy.

Or if you prefer, I object to the concept that some people are wealthy enough not to have to worry about following the law.

Someone who has worked hard and made thier wealth should not have to pay a higher fine. That is just absurd.  The law is the law. It doesn't distinguish between whether someone is wealthy or not very dangerous territory to advocate for that   by your definition  someone who is wealthy should have longer sentences in jail too

Their wealth *DOES* make the punishment different, because the fine means less to them, because they have more money, because they're wealthy.

The law is the law, and it shouldn't discriminate against poor people, but that's what flat fines do. It isn't dangerous territory.

Wealthy people (by in large, in this country at least) should not live longer than poor people.  Therefore, the years of their life have the same value as the years of the life of any other person.

When it comes right down too it, the "punishment" that a fine represents is not a dollar value, it's lost work, lost wages.  Wealthy people are paid more per hour, thus a fine of the same value represents less lost work than it does for a lower income person.  You're actually the one arguing for sentences to be shorter for wealthy people.