Finnish millionaire gets $60,000 speeding ticket.....

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The entire point of a fine is to deter people. If the fine is so low that it has no effect on a person then it's not a deterrent.

We could take that farther: If the crime is unlikely to be noticed, then the penalty needs to be stiffer to deter people because they know that they'll get away with it most of the time. That sounds like an argument for draconian three-strikes laws... Heck, who am I kidding? Let's make it one-strike. That'll really deter those government-disrespecting scoundrels.

If it's just an excuse how should they enforce laws? Or are you advocating for anarchy?

You're missing the point entirely. Percentage based fines are about equality. $100 is different for the family with minimum wage earners than it is for the CEO of a multinational. $100 could be the weekly food budget for that family, $100 is half a haircut bill for the CEO. So if both groups get fined at that flat $100 we as a country are excessively punishing people for being poor and rewarding people for being wealthy. If the fines were percentage based both groups would be getting punished EQUALLY because they both are getting fined for the SAME percentage of their income. It would be equitable, fair, and actually deter more people, not just the poor ones.

Why not just make the ticked a down to earh amount instead of inciting class warfare? The points given for moving violations and increased insurance costs are penalty enough.

You're missing the point entirely. Percentage based fines are about equality.

1. Equality isn't class warfare, it's the very fabric of our nation was built on, that's why. Unlike the faux-patriots out there that are only concerned with their own personal status/wealth/whatever, I actually believe in the PRINCIPLES the United States was built on and I'll respect the sacrifices the men and women of this country have made to bring those principles to life and I will fight for those principles, EVERY SINGLE TIME, regardless of how unpopular the message may be. Fact of the matter is we live in a greedy narcissistic culture with distorted morals, a culture that doesn't understand that sometimes you have to make personal sacrifices for the greater good. It's lazy, selfish, and eventually will run a nation into the ground

(read up on how Rome fell, you read enough you'll find barbarians where only a symptom of the underlying disease).

2. Increased insurance is only if you buy a more expensive car, if you bought a less expensive car you'd pay less in insurance since it's based on what the insurance company will have to pay out should you have a claim. More expensive car = higher payout = higher insurance rate. No one's forcing you to buy an expensive car with all the added expenses it incurs-- that's free choice, another hallmark of our nation.

Getting fined 60k for doing 64 in a 50 zone is highway robbery no matter how much the offender is worth.

If that's the point, it's one that you didn't make. Reread your post.

Your argument about deterrence is correct. I'm just curious how far you're willing to take it.

Yeah, make the speeds be recommended, but not enforced.

Get caught with a faulty pipe that dumps oil, $20,000 fine, much cheaper than the half million or so it would take to insulate the pipe properly so it doesn't rupture in the first place.

In many cases, if one is driving the speed limit and something happens such as someone steps out in front of them, they will not be prosecuted because they are driving the speed limit or less. If we do away with speed limits, then there would be no such limits on liability at lower speeds and you would be far more likely to be prosecuted.

I would assume that if they got rid of the speed limit they would also change the other laws to reflect that.
Another way they reduce the speed here is by speed bumps and by making the roads so bad you can't really drive at high speeds.

A few years ago, Texas passed some legislation that permitted a town to keep only a certain portion of their ticket revenue. If it was all about generating revenue, Estelline could easily maximize their revenue in a month or two each year. So by enforcing speed limits all year, they might be spending more the other ten or eleven months to enforce the speed limits than they are permitted to keep of their revenue.

Estelline has a one man police force whose main purpose is to fill city coffers. The Officer writes about 20 tickets a day to drivers who fail to slow as the wide, flat four-lane leaves the Panhandle's red-dirt cotton fields and enters this farm town of 168 residents about a hundred miles southeast of Amarillo.

Despite a 1975 Texas law aimed at curbing speed traps, Estelline has been able to mine nearly its entire budget from motorists who fail to slow from 70 mph to 50 mph when they hit the city limits.

"We follow the state law," said Estelline Mayor Rick Manley, whose current budget anticipates it will take in $320,000 in traffic fines this year. The town keeps some of the money but by law will have to give a chunk to the state.

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Under the law, which applies to towns of fewer than 5,000, nearly all traffic fines that exceed 30 percent of a city's previous year's total general revenues must be paid to the state. For instance, a town that takes in total revenues of $100,000 this year can keep only $30,000 in traffic fines next year, plus $1 for each ticket over the cap.

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This year, Estelline will keep about $110,000 in highway fines, said the municipal judge who also at the time was working temporarily as city clerk.

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We're not getting rich here," said the judge. "We won't be retiring from this." It costs about $126,000 a year to run its one-man police force and city court, including the Peace officers $50,000 a year salary. "It's hard if you're a small town finding someone who will work like our Officer," said Manley, the mayor. "A lot of the guys will just sit around by the coffee pot. Our Officer will work six days a week."

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The state receives $71.50 for costs and fees on every ticket; drivers who opt to take a driving safety course pay no fine; and truckers who are ticketed often hire a lawyer and appeal to county courts, which keep any fines paid,