There’s always gonna be these people knowingly breaking the law if they can easily afford the fines. Do you think she would keep driving without her seat belt and smoking wherever she pleases if she was fined say 10% of her yearly income every time she was caught?

    • stoy@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      The court sentences a person to say 28 day fines based on the severity of the crime, the day fine’s value is determined by the income of the person sentenced.

      So a rich guy will pay far more for the same infraction than a poor guy.

      The system is meant to equalize the concequenses regardless of how much moneybyou have.

    • DarkMessiah@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So, a day fine is when there’s a base minimum fine for things, but the actual fine beyond that is based on the income of the person who received it. You earn more beyond a certain amount, you pay more sort of thing.

      It actually makes fines useful as a deterrent for the rich instead of a price-of-entry, though I’m of the opinion that anyone who makes above a certain amount who would earn a fine should earn jail time instead.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I’m of the opinion that anyone who makes above a certain amount who would earn a fine should earn jail time instead.

        That goes against the spirit of democracy and laws. Why should someone rich go to jail for speeding alone on the highway while a middle class parent could do the exact same infraction with their kids in the car and just pay a ticket?

    • Jesus_666@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Now, others have already explained that is a fine based on a days’ earnings (usually estimated from annual income). I’d like to add that implementing this for companies is why EU legislation like the GDPR is so fearsome.

      If a company violates the GDPR badly enough¹ they can be fined up to 4% of their annual revenue or 20 million euros, whichever is higher. No matter what size that company is, that kind of fine hurts enough to be a deterrent. And suddenly everyone is very interested in following the law, even the guys with bigger budgets than some countries.


      ¹ Less egregious violations have halved max fines. Still enough to be really painful.