"Alex Tabarrok <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>" wrote: > While middle-income Finns seem to find the system fair, some of > their wealthier countrymen wonder if they should even risk hefty > fines by getting behind the wheel of a car in the first place. As usual, there are three main issues here: Privacy, deterrance and culpability. * Privacy I wouldn't like the idea of the police knowing how much I make w/o a court subpoena. How much more hated would the IRS be if the Treasury Department freely shared information with other law enforcement bodies such as the FBI for penal purposes? * Deterrance It certainly gets people where it hurts, not unlike jury-scaled punitive damages against big-money defendants in civils suits. Rightly or wrongly, the tobacco and gun manufacturers settlements/verdicts come to mind. I think this policy is more than effective as a deterrant because no one can easily write off the financial loss. The upside to speeding is limited in most areas due to traffic congestion, so the profit motive does not neutralize the deterrant effect as with the death penalty. * Culpability The idea of traffic violations defies legal logic for this issue because their prime purpose is deterrance: stop dangerous behavior before it hurts somebody. In other legal spheres, like criminal law, a person or organization is punished only after another person or organization gets hurt (drug offenses not withstanding). And, jail time is equally punitive no matter how wealthy a convict is, since most people in the US have the same life expectancy. So, how does one calculate a punishment that fits the crime? If I dare say, this exposes an inconsistency in the concept of government-born a priori regulations. This arbitrariness would not be an issue if roads were private, where the usage rules and corresponding penalties would be shaped by market forces, not unlike the Terms of Service (TOS) enforced by various Internet service providers. The concerns over the Finnish formula for punishing speeding are more than justifiable in the context of ethical principles. Regards, Sourav Mandal ------------------------------------------------------------ Sourav K. Mandal [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.ikaran.com/Sourav.Mandal/ "In enforcing a truth we need severity rather than efflorescence of language. We must be simple, precise, terse." -- Edgar Allan Poe, "The Poetic Principle"
