America Should Learn from Finland, Where Fines Are Proportional to Your Income

One hyper-rich dude got a $130,000 speeding ticket

Have you ever noticed how often BMW and Mercedes drivers zoom past you on the highway?

Over the weekend, I found myself stuck in a twenty-minute slog called an “Average Speed Check,” where the despots in control of the nation erected Orwellian speed cameras every half-mile for twenty miles so they have not one but forty chances to catch hard-working commoners going slightly over their prescribed limit.

But even still, all the Maseratis and Teslas Model Xs zoomed on past.

That’s because speeding tickets don’t matter to the rich compared to the poor:

• If you make $5 million a year, a $300 ticket is the equivalent of fining a $50k earner three bucks.
• If you’re a global predator like Blackrock’s Larry Fink and you rake in $36 million per year off the backs of the working poor, a $300 ticket is the equivalent of fining a $50k earner $0.41.
• If you’re a stock-manipulating, tax-avoiding, employee-exploiting $hitcole-shilling cyborg with a net worth of $250 billion like Elon Musk, a $300 ticket is the equivalent of fining the median American $0.00018.

For the rich, speeding causes no pain.

If anything, because their time is nominally “worth” more than yours, they’re actually incentivized to break the law and put others in danger.

But Nordics, they know a few things.

In Finland, the land of saunas and salmon and social democracy, they decided it was only fair and right and just to inflict equal punishment for equal lawbreaking.

They decided to make fines proportional to your income.

The Finns call it the “Day-Fine System”

Here’s how it works:

1. The day-fine system applies to most crimes that are punishable by way of a fine, such as traffic violations, shoplifting, violating securities exchange law, tax evasion, bribery, drunk driving, fraud, embezzlement, forgery, etc. (So basically, the goings-on of a third of the white-collar workers in the US and Britain.)
2. The fines are calculated based on half an offender’s daily net income, with some consideration for the number of children under his or her roof and a deduction deemed to be enough to cover basic living expenses
3. The system allows for a maximum of 120 day-fines for any offence. This means that a very wealthy offender could face a very large fine, depending on their income.

In truth, Finland fines people half a day’s salary. As a way of delivering social justice and equal impact of punishment, they’ve been using a system of income-based fines since 1921.

And it’s led to some gloriously massive fines:

• The NHL player Teemu Selanne incurred a $39,000 speeding fine.
• A Finnish businessman named Reima Kuisla was fined $60,000 for driving 65 mph in a 50 zone.
• A former director of Nokia named Anssi Vanjoki was fined $130,000 for speeding on his Harley Davidson
• In 2014, a Finnish businessman was fined 1.1 million euros ($1.3 million) for insider trading, which was equivalent to 80 day-fines.

Meanwhile, for the average Finn, the price of speeding won’t absolutely ruin their lives:

• Up to 15 km/h over the limit: 1 day-fine
• 16–20 km/h over the limit: 2 day-fines
• 21–25 km/h over the limit: 3 day-fines
• 26–30 km/h over the limit: 4 day-fines
• 31–35 km/h over the limit: 5 day-fines
• 36–40 km/h over the limit: 6 day-fines
• Over 40 km/h over the limit: court decision

Using some back-of-the-napkin math, that means the average speeding ticket for an average income earner in Finland is something like:

• Up to 15 km/h over the limit: 58.45 EUR
• 16–20 km/h over the limit: 116.9 EUR
• 21–25 km/h over the limit: 175.35 EUR
• 26–30 km/h over the limit: 233.8 EUR
• 31–35 km/h over the limit: 292.25 EUR
• 36–40 km/h over the limit: 350.7 EUR
• Over 40 km/h over the limit: varies

Needless to say, over 80% of Finns are in favor of this incredibly fair and schadenfreudenly brutal law.

In America (and Canada and the UK and elsewhere), the rich scoff at speeding fines and drive with impunity.

Meanwhile, that same fine can crush a single mother or set back a poor family for months or longer, causing major hardship.

That’s not right.

In fact, it’s evil.

America should introduce a system of income or wealth-based fines.

In fact, if the US is serious about creating a fair and free society, everything should be proportional.

To whom much is given, much is required.

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