We’ve got “progressive” taxation — those who earn more pay more
— but how about “progressive” traffic fines? Should the amount you
have to pay for a speeding ticket or failing to buckle up be based
on how deep your pockets are?
The concept is already being tried out in Europe — and, be
advised, what starts there often ends up here. Authorities in
Helsinki, Finland, recently slammed a speeder with a $216,900 fine
— an amount arrived at after authorities reviewed the offender’s
tax records and income. Jussi Salonoja, 27, turns out to be worth
millions — so his fine was notched up to a level that would cause
him the same painful sense of loss a $200 ticket might an ordinary
wage slave. Anssi Vanjoki — at the time a Nokia vice-president —
was similarly issued a $148,000 ticket for doing 45 in a 30-mph
zone. In case you were wondering, that works out to $9,866.66 per
mile over the speed limit.
While workers of the world types might cheer this sort of thing,
anyone who gives it a little thought will come to see the inequity.
“Ability to pay” should no more be the basis for fines than ability
to endure pain should determine the amount of anesthesia a person
gets at the dentist’s before a root canal. Whether it’s income tax
or roadside robbery, the undercurrent of malice remains the
same.
There’s also the issue of proportionality. Petty crimes — some
of them involving violence — rarely rate more than 30 days of
actual time in the pokey (assuming there’s even a conviction). As
for fines, there are usually none — or they are small. In any
event, the offender is almost always broke and ends up paying
nothing or next to nothing. How does that square with issuing
non-violent, otherwise solid citizens who have at most convicted a
minor technical infraction six figure fines?
Luckily, we here in the United States do have the Constitution
and Bill of Rights — which in theory offer equal protection of the
laws. But in practice, the equal protection clause was thrown out
the window years ago, when the graduated income tax system became
the law of the land. The guiding principle of U.S. income tax law
is “progressivism” — put simply, ability to pay. Your tax rate is
based on how much you earn. The scales become more punitive the
more successful you become. At one time, the top effective federal
tax rate was nearly 90 percent; today, it is less — but still
almost half one’s income at a certain level. Even moderately
successful people pay out a third of their annual income to the
government.
So much for “equal protection of the laws.”
Probably the only reason the principle that governs taxes hasn’t
yet been applied to traffic fines is that up to now no one in the
bureaucracy thought of deploying it against “speeders.” But now
that it’s being put into effect in Europe, don’t be surprised if it
makes its way here, too. It was the British, for example, who first
deployed surveillance cameras in public places — as well as photo
radar. (Of course, the Brits have no Bill of Rights, either.)
So get ready. Your next ticket may cost you a lot more than
$100.
