a €54,000 speeding ticket

[phuckphace]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102483784

The next time you get a speeding ticket, be grateful you don't live in Finland—and that you don't make $7 million a year.

Like many Nordic countries, Finland bases its speeding tickets only partly on the actual speed violation. Most of the fine is determined by the violator's income. So when businessman Reima Kuisla got stopped for doing 64 miles per hour in a 50 mph zone, authorities looked at his 2013 tax return and saw that he made 6.5 million euros, or more than $7 million.

According to the BBC, Kuisla was given a fine of 54,000 euros, or just under $60,000.

haha #rekt! I must confess, this is an astonishingly good idea you've got there, Finland.

the best part of all:

The BBC said Kuisla took to his Facebook page to complain and said that he was considering moving abroad.

"Finland is impossible to live in for certain kinds of people who have high incomes and wealth," he wrote.

tl;dr a rich guy thought his money put him above the law but forgot he wasn't in the united states of freedum where assholes like him get to use the country as their playground.

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tying fines to income, yes or no? to me it makes perfect sense. we already tie taxes to income (since if you make more money, it logically follows that you can/should pay more tax).

[Babs]

Instead of just not speeding, he wants to move abroad.
Instead of doing the simple, easiest, most reasonable thing you could do to avoid a speeding ticket, he wants to move to an entirely new country.

I think fines according to income would be very effective.

[phuckphace]

most rich people exhibit this same sort of entitlement complex. they cried when the top income tax rate was 70%, and they're still crying about the current 35%. there's basically no way to appease their whining until the tax rate is 0% and all economic regulations are removed. this guy in the OP makes 7 million euro a year in one of the world's most successful countries, and in return he throws a tantrum on Facebook about it and starts contemplating to which Anglophone strip-mall country he should flee with his capital.

I guess that's one of the advantages to high tax rates...they're an incentive for the pathologically greedy to fuck off somewhere else where they're welcomed.

[Stronk Serb]

Heck yeah they should implement that here.

[TapDancer]

In my legal studies class at school, we were given the example of two people, guilty of the same crime and getting the same punishment and we were asked if justice was served

On a busy highway with a speed limit of 80KMPH, a single mother of 5 children was rushing to get her children to school so she could then get to her minimum wage job in fast food. She was caught by a speed camera at 83KMPH. Another Gentleman, late for his meeting in his corporate job with a seven figure salary, was also speeding. He was clocked at 84KMPH. Both were guilty of speeding not more than 5KMPH over the limit and both face a fine of $436 dollars. The mother works minimum wage and collects government benefits. She literally can not afford this fine and borrows the money of extended family or risk her family going hungry in order to pay. The gentlemen put it on his Platinum Visa with not even so much as a hesitation as $436 is spare change to him.

Same crime, same fine. Was justice served?

In my opinion, more countries should adopt this method of fines in order to better reflect justice. So yeah, we should do that here, I think it's brilliant.

[Vlerchan]

I agree.

As someone's wealth expands a smaller and smaller amount of happiness is tied to the equivalent-wealth/income at the margin. Laws desiring to act as an effective deterrent against certain forms of behaviour need to account for this.

[JamesSuperBoy]

It makes a good case for that system in other countries.

[cami]

Wow, that's more money than some people make in a year :O

Good system, indeed.

[phuckphace]

Wow, that's more money than some people make in a year :O

hell yes, that's the point. if you can take a €54,000 hit without tripping then you probably didn't need it anyway :D

[SethfromMI]

it actually makes a lot of sense and something we should do in America. a 115 dollar speeding ticket is a slap on the wrist if you're making millions of dollars. Not a bad concept at all

[Abyssal Echo]

I have to agree that it does make sense to make ticket fines based on income like income taxes. As SethfromMI said a 115.00 fine to someone that has millions is a slap on the wrist. which, Imo means nothing compared to it's impact on someone making minimum wage.

[Miserabilia]

This makes me happy.

[Kahn]

As someone's wealth expands a smaller and smaller amount of happiness is tied to the equivalent-wealth/income at the margin.

What do you mean by this?

I do agree that this would be a good idea to implement.

[Vlerchan]

What do you mean by this?
It's a more formal-sounding means of expressing Seth's point.

Each extra euro (or so) grants less satisfaction than the one proceeding it. It means less to a rich person than a poor person.

[tovaris]

This is a good thing. I am of the opinion more countries should do so.