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Finland, Home of the $103,000 Speeding Ticket ATTENTION FERGUSON, MO!
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/Most of Scandinavia determines fines based on income. Could such a system work in the U.S.?
Reima Kuisla, a Finnish businessman, was recently caught going 65 miles per hour in a 50 zone in his home countryan offense that would typically come with a fine of a couple hundred dollars, at most, in the U.S. But after Finnish police pulled Kuisla over, they pinged a federal taxpayer database to determine his income, consulted their handbook, and arrived at the amount that he was required to pay: 54,000.
The fine was so extreme because in Finland, some traffic fines, as well as fines for shoplifting and violating securities-exchange laws, are assessed based on earningsand Kuisla's declared income was 6.5 million per year. Exorbitant fines like this are infrequent, but not unheard of: In 2002, a Nokia executive was fined the equivalent of $103,000 for going 45 in a 30 zone on his motorcycle, and the NHL player Teemu Selanne incurred a $39,000 fine two years earlier.
This is no constitutionally governed state, one Finn who was fined nearly $50,000 moaned to The Wall Street Journal, This is a land of rhinos! Outrage among the richespecially nonsensical, safari-invoking outragemight be a sign that something fair is at work.
Finlands system for calculating fines is relatively simple: It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day, and then divides that by twothe resulting number is considered a reasonable amount of spending money to deprive the offender of. Then, based on the severity of the crime, the system has rules for how many days the offender must go without that money. Going about 15 mph over the speed limit gets you a multiplier of 12 days, and going 25 mph over carries a 22-day multiplier...
IT'S WORTH A TRY--IT MIGHT BE THE ONLY WAY TO GET THE BANKSTERS, JUST AS INCOME TAX EVASION TOOK OUT CAPONE
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Finland, Home of the $103,000 Speeding Ticket ATTENTION FERGUSON, MO! (Original Post)
Demeter
Mar 2015
OP
omg, the elite here would lose their minds. I am a victim 'cause I rich! n/t
Jefferson23
Mar 2015
#1
Finland is smart on many aspects of how they run their government. Until we have public funded
Jefferson23
Mar 2015
#7
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)1. omg, the elite here would lose their minds. I am a victim 'cause I rich! n/t
Demeter
(85,373 posts)2. Small loss, IMO
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)7. Finland is smart on many aspects of how they run their government. Until we have public funded
elections here, we're pretty much screwed.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)3. I like it.
Lucky Luciano
(11,267 posts)4. $100K for speeding is stupid. nt
Demeter
(85,373 posts)5. Noblese Oblige!
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)6. Pay for the privilege.
packman
(16,296 posts)8. I love it
Carrying such a fine to income ratio is a damn good idea - a tip of the hat to them
BobTheSubgenius
(11,573 posts)9. The financial pinch felt by two people...
...of vastly different incomes should be equal, IMO. To someone of not even billionaire, but a multimillionaire type of income, a "normal" traffic fine is nothing, but would hurt a person of modest means.
In other words....these fines are supposed to be a deterrent. If a speeding ticket carried a fine of a dollar and a half, who would be deterred?