And relatedly, I’m not sure about capital punishment, but it seems obvious to at least attempt to make fines proportionate to net worth or something. Ie. Bill Gates shouldn’t get the same sized speeding ticket as John Doe on welfare.
This feels like it’d be political policy that is low hanging fruit. I suspect that it isn’t because of EMH reasons, but I don’t understand the reasons why it isn’t.
I don’t agree with the take about net worth. The fine should just be whatever makes the state ambivalent about the externalities of speeding. If Bill Gates wants to pay enormous taxes to speed aggressively then that would work too.
Hm, I hadn’t thought about it that way. I was just thinking that the goal of the fine is some combination of 1) punitive and 2) deterrent, and neither of those goals are accomplished if you fine Bill Gates $200. But yeah, I guess if you make the fine large enough such that the state is ambivalent, maybe it all works out.
Yeah. It’s really weird.
And relatedly, I’m not sure about capital punishment, but it seems obvious to at least attempt to make fines proportionate to net worth or something. Ie. Bill Gates shouldn’t get the same sized speeding ticket as John Doe on welfare.
This feels like it’d be political policy that is low hanging fruit. I suspect that it isn’t because of EMH reasons, but I don’t understand the reasons why it isn’t.
I don’t agree with the take about net worth. The fine should just be whatever makes the state ambivalent about the externalities of speeding. If Bill Gates wants to pay enormous taxes to speed aggressively then that would work too.
Hm, I hadn’t thought about it that way. I was just thinking that the goal of the fine is some combination of 1) punitive and 2) deterrent, and neither of those goals are accomplished if you fine Bill Gates $200. But yeah, I guess if you make the fine large enough such that the state is ambivalent, maybe it all works out.