Christine the Lioness (3122)
Christopher the Pyro (1986)
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John1040 the Soldier (59)
HART the Virgin mentioned
What do I think? Well, I think it would terrible to give another body of government access to my personal and tax information .. but I think you are on to something.. Expanding on your plan, I just thought of this one. NOBODY pays for traffic fines and violations. If you get a ticket for (your example) $270 for driving in the car pool lane, you don’t have to pay it, but the amount is added to your driver’s licence. If you get another ticket, the price would doubles each time. So, the 2nd ticket is $540 added to your licence. The 3rd ticket, would be $1080. So, after three tickets - you would have to cough up $1890 to renew your license, otherwise .. (this is the beauty part of it) .. traffic offenders who can’t afford to do that can get the heck off our roads! And, for the ones that can afford and misuse the system, well, maybe half of the fines can be donated to some Pet rescue agency or something needy like that.
Christopher the Pyro spake, and sayeth
Hart,
That’s not such a bad idea.. I didn’t like Christine’s.. the idea of implimenting another system that redistributes wealth just pisses me off. Your idea was great.. until you got to the Pet rescue agency.. wtf..
Christine the Lioness asserted
Hart, so eventually you have pay it or you can’t have your license… which means everyone IS paying for traffic fines. It’s just a matter of when you have to cough up the money… and I’m confused about how this solves the problem of wealthy people not seeing it as a deterrent… it doesn’t stop them… and how is a donation to pet rescue any better than using that money to say, repair the roads? I’m confused.
And by the way, I’m sure Christopher didn’t like my idea. He thought it was great on our second date… hmmm… of course maybe he just agreed because he thought it would get me to sleep with him. Guys will say anything, right?
Christopher the Pyro asserted
Well it was a better idea before I slept with you… the problem with Christine’s idea is that it just gives wealthy people even more motivation to hide income and cheat.
Christine the Lioness asserted
I think the fact that wealthy people are in higher tax brackets and have to pay more money to the government is more of an incentive to cheat than whether or not they’re going to have to pay a little more on a traffic ticket. Wealthy people already use up as many loop holes and write offs as they can to save themselves money. I don’t think anyone who wasn’t cheating before will be inspired to cheat by the sheer fact that they might possibly get a traffic ticket.
Village Idiot the Virgin chimed in with
Actually, Sweden or somebody like Sweden does this. Last year it was in the news that a computer-company-owner-type-guy got like a zillion dollar speeding fine because his income is off the charts. I’m too lazy to look it up, but I’m sure you can find it because you’re smart people.
Rock On,
The Idiot
Christopher the Pyro commented
They then repealed that law.. as they did in Germany.
Christine the Lioness got all philosophical
That’s just stupid. Do you know how much the government could benefit from collecting on a zillion dollar speeding ticket?!? We could fund a lot of my liberally-minded programs that way!
Ranting Tommy the Virgin mentioned
I say get rid of speed limits altogether, and let the police get back to fighting real crime. Once ALL the other crime is solved, THEN they can get back to putting a limit to the rate that I can pursue my happiness.
Christine the Lioness remarked
LOL, Tommy! But without all the money they collect from speeding tickets, how can we afford to pay police to come to work and solve real crime???
HART the Virgin hunt n' pecked this
Hi Again. I just said pet rescue because of my PetLvr blog. Fines could be used towards road repairs… I can agree on that point .. and you didn’t have to sleep with me 
jin the Virgin mentioned
being from LA, I think that the cops there have the system down. They target more expensive looking cars anyway. The old beaters are usually ignored, or if pulled over, the cop lets them go. why ticket the poor guy who can’t pay, then throw him in jail for not paying so he can’t work to feed his kids? So of course, my ass always gets tagged when I’m in the sketchy neighborhoods for my…uh…weekly visits…for uh… well, anyway, I’m in Seattle now so it doesn’t matter what I was doing in those sketchy LA neighborhoods
Brad the Virgin stated
I like the way you think Christine. Obviously your plan would never see the light of day. Regardless, it was well thought out and is a creative way of thinking.
I last got a ticket in L.A. in 1990. The judge denied me traffic school and said the fine was $17 plus fees. When I went to pay they told me it was $153. I basically said “WTF”?!?
They explained that the “fees” were $8 for every one dollar of the fine. ($17 X $ 
+ $17 = $153
If traffic tickets get too much higher, we might see auto insurance companies offering “traffic infraction coverage”.
Christopher the Pyro pontificated
Christine’s plan is flawed because breaking the law is breaking the law. If I’m going 85 in a 35 (the reason I got a $700 ticket) then I deserve a $700 ticket being wealthy doesn’t mean the crime is less bad. The fact is, we wouldn’t send someone to rain for 2 years if they rob a store becasue they are poor then then send a rich person to jail for 10 years because they are rich. It’s pretty amazing Christine thought of this because her liberal ass is all about being “fair” and there is nothing “fair” about this. It’s like the tax laws, they arn’t fair.. so the poor pay no taxes and the rich pay 96% of the taxes, that is redistribution of weath, that isn’t fair, that isn’t capatalist and it isn’t very American either.
Christine the Lioness thought this
Christopher thinks being American means being a wealthy, privileged, white male. So yes… in those terms, I guess my plan isn’t all that “American.” The difference between breaking a traffic law and committing robbery is so freaking obvious, I’m surprised I have to explain in. The government doesn’t make money on criminals who commit robbery. It actually costs the government money to arrest, prosecute, and detain those people. But it’s a necessary expense because it is necessary to get them off the streets. The government, it’s not too difficult to see, does make money on traffic infractions. It doesn’t cost some the state $700 to pay a pencil pusher to process that check Christopher had to send in when he got caught speeding. So the reason that fines are so expensive, and traffic school is a way to pay the government to take a class so that your little traffic incident can be wiped off your record and they’ll get your money instead of your insurance company getting your money, is… hmmm… a WAY to make MONEY. What isn’t fair, is that people who can afford to pay these traffic fines get to break laws while people who can’t afford them, have to follow the rules or they’re fucked. Plain and simple. And Brad is probably right… insurance companies will eventually figure out how to get their digs in and recoup the money they’re losing from the all the people who choose to pay for traffic school instead of letting their traffic infractions be turned in.
Christopher the Pyro added
I guess.. I would prefer to be Wealty, privileged, and white to, broke, uneducated and female.. (Christine’s goals for the world). The government most certainly does make money on criminals, they employee them to do slave labor for 10 cents an hour, they employ a massive workforce, of which they collect taxes from.
Christopher the Pyro thought this
See Christine, your all wrong here, almost all crimes also carry a fine. If i rob a convience store for $20 bucks worth of food because I want to, and I get probation and a $20,000 fine (which goes to the government) is that any different then.. oh I don’t know a speeding ticket?
Christine the Lioness mentioned
People who can’t afford to pay fines for minor infractions, misdemeanors, etc., are allowed to serve jail time instead… but that’s beside the point. My point is… it doesn’t seem like (if the system of paying fines for traffic violations to deter the public from committing them) the system is fair because you’re taking away something that not everyone has the same amount of (which just by nature, makes it unfair). Here’s another thought… if you had to do community service for traffic violations instead of paying money (say 4 hours of community service for every 10 miles over the speed limit), then it would be fair because time is something that everyone has equally. So maybe that’s a better idea if the goal is to make it as fair as possible…
dreddnott the Virgin quibbed this
I agree, the people who cannot afford to pay restitution to the government must serve jail time. Of course, the illegal immigrants should be serving jail time in MEXICO, not the United States!
Christine the Lioness remarked
So… again, people with money get privileges that poor people don’t. Great idea… if you’re rich and privileged…
Christopher the Pyro remarked
That is fine with me… I mean there should be some benifit besides having flocks of hot ladies around and threeday weekends in bora bora if your rich and privileged right?
Ruth the Virgin penned this
I think the system we have in Britain is pretty fair: if you’re caught speeding you get 3 points on your license which stay on your license for 3 years. If at any one time you get 12 points on your license, you get disqualified from driving. The state isn’t making money out of fines but it has the same impact for everyone, and speeding is treated with a little more gravity now.
Christine the Lioness quibbed this
I think that’s an excellent idea, Ruth!
Christopher the Pyro said this
Ruth, we have the same system here.
Christine the Lioness got all philosophical
Except that THERE… they don’t ALSO pay a fine. It’s just points…
Christopher the Pyro chimed in with
Right we get double fucked.
Chris the Virgin got all philosophical
The other thing about the UK is that there are mostly speed cameras (which are marked with signs and lines on the road so they are very easy to avoid). Its very rare that you’ll actually see a cop in a vehicle with his speed checker thingy waiting to pull some poor guy over for going 5 above the Speed limit…I personally drive between 5-10 over all the time b/c the British enjoy going fast and its next to impossible to go at the posted “recommended” speeds like us Americans tend to try and obey. Especially when you live almost an hour away from work and the road you drive is in the middle of nowhere with 10 ft deep ditches on either side! I actually like driving in the UK!
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