A $200 speeding ticket is a punishment for a teacher but merely a convenience fee for a millionaire.
Fixed-rate fines fail to deter high-income individuals and turn legal compliance into a calculated economic choice. The law becomes functionally optional for those who can afford to pay for the privilege of breaking it. Legal systems are built on the assumption that a uniform fine provides a uniform deterrent for all citizens. This analysis shows that income inequality destroys the moral legitimacy of the law by creating two different sets of rules. Moving to income-proportional fines would be the only way to restore true equality before the law.
FROM FORMAL EQUALITY TO SUBSTANTIVE JUSTICE: Deterrence, Income Inequality, and Legal Legitimacy in Fixed-Rate Fine Systems
SSRN · 6704919
This paper began with a traffic jam. In the United States and Turkey, across different cities and different years, I repeatedly observed the same pattern: when traffic came to a complete halt, the vehicle racing through the emergency lane was almost always a luxury car. The thought was simple but unsettling; this driver probably knows a fine is coming, and does not care. The same fine would not stop me either, but it would hit my budget disproportionately. For that vehicle, the amount was pocket