General Road and Highway Discussion

[ijmorlan]

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

Bizarre illogic. Somebody who is wealthier doesn’t have more lifetime. Somebody who is wealthier does have more money.

What is absurd is pretending that a multi-millionaire paying a $100 fine has been penalized in any meaningful way. A minimum-wage job holder paying a $100 fine definitely has been penalized.

This is not to say that wealth-contingent fines are a simple matter: to start with, do you measure wealth, or income, or a combination? And how? But to dismiss them as presumptively unfair is not reasonable.

“In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.”