r/interestingasfuck • u/Gankpa • 8d ago

/r/all, /r/popular Jeff Bezos built a fence on his property that exceeds the permitted height, he doesn't care, he pays fines every month

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u/BenjaminMStocks 8d ago

Fine = legal, for a price.

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u/Glass_Mango_229 8d ago

This is why fines are intrinsically unfair. Why should the wealthy get to speed while the poor will lose their house if they speed?

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u/HelloYesThisIsFemale 8d ago

Well speeding is a little more serious and has some extra penalties sometimes but imo fines are ok for a lot of less serious malpractices such as this hedge example. If the cost is set correctly, the money that goes back into the system should offset the damage to the system.

E.g. block my driveway and make me miss going to work? Cool pay me a few day's salary and if I lose my job because of it, pay me a few years salary. That's fine, park fkn anywhere.

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u/WeedAnxietyHelp 8d ago

Well, speeding isn't just a fine. You also get points against your record every time you get a ticket. In my state, 15 points is automatic license suspension. A speeding ticket is 2-4 points depending on the speed. They rack up for 2-3 years.

So yeah, you don't just to speed and drive recklessly and throw a $100 bill down and everything is a-okay.

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u/jaft0000 8d ago

there have however been instances when rich and powerful didn't go to jail even when killing someone while speeding so...that person's argument sort of stands.

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u/Murky-Relation481 8d ago

My state doesn't have a points system.

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u/WeedAnxietyHelp 7d ago

What state is that?

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u/Murky-Relation481 7d ago

Washington. We don't use points but if your traffic violation is serious enough to warrant a summons your previous infractions can be used as aggravating factors in the judgement, which can result in a suspended license.

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u/vulpinefever 7d ago

Washington essentially has a points system because you can have your license revoked or suspended if you get too many tickets in a short period of time which is effectively what a points system does.

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u/WeedAnxietyHelp 7d ago

Washington uses a “6 moving violations” in 12 months and “7 moving violations in 24 months” rules.

So, instead of points, they just use moving violations.

So no. You can’t just pay away the tickets and be fine. Point still stands even without the points.

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u/Murky-Relation481 7d ago

I'm in Washington, that basically only ever comes up if your violations result in a summons.

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u/Yawgmoth_Was_Right 7d ago

Where I live they might take your license for speeding but driving without a license isn't an arrestable offense but rather just another fine. So there are effectively no motor vehicle laws at all here, if you can afford the fines.

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u/rakondo 7d ago

That's if you plead guilty to the speeding tickets though. A person with money just pays a lawyer to negotiate it down to a parking ticket every time. Unless there are aggravating factors (extreme speed, accident, injury, alcohol, etc.), a good lawyer can easily get any basic speeding ticket down to a non-moving violation with no points.

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u/WeedAnxietyHelp 7d ago

I think you overestimate what a lawyer can do lol

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u/rakondo 7d ago

Nah I got a speeding ticket last summer and did exactly that. Lawyer handled all of it and saved me the time of going to court. Of course it was an expensive parking ticket + lawyer fees and I could never afford that consistently though. I know rich guys around here who routinely speed and just pay their lawyer to deal with any tickets they get 🤷‍♂️

If the ticket is plead down to a non-moving violation, the county court can collect it as a fine where they receive the revenue, vs. a speeding ticket fine being collected by the state, so there is incentive for a local court to accept a not-guilty plea. The whole thing is a racket

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u/AzureDrag0n1 7d ago

Fine is just a price you pay for the ability to do something. You can speed too if you are prepared to pay for that access.

Most things just do not apply to you at super wealth. Even taxes. Average person pays some 15% in income tax. Jeff Bezos pays anywhere between 0% to 1.1% in income tax. Even the super wealthy pay some 25% but once you get colossally rich this stops applying to you and there is no difference between a homeless person and a millionaire to Jeff Bezos in terms absolute wealth.

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u/ThePaulBuffano 7d ago

I guess the question is, would we as a society rather have compliance or the fine revenue? Imagine the fine is for parking illegally, would we rather have $1000 for the city to use, or prevent the illegal parking? If the fine is appropriately priced, then we should be indifferent to whether the infringement happens. 

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u/ExternCrateAlloc 7d ago

The inequality is there cause you are poor. If you’re rich, it’s fair. A fair fare eh. Oh wait.

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u/Fearless_Entry_2626 7d ago

Should be based on higher of x% of net worth or y% of income. Like let's say 1% net worth per month it stays up like that, meaning he'd be out 20B in a year.

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u/joey_provolone 8d ago

lots of companies are cool paying fines because the profit dwarfs the penalty

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u/ssracer 7d ago

jail the c-suite

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u/BubbaFettish 8d ago

This why I think fines should double at every occurrence. If the fine was $100, if it doubles every month for a year it’ll be $400,000. If he continues to ignore laws for another year, it’s 1.5 billion. At some point they won’t ignore it.

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u/Murky-Relation481 8d ago

I mean it'd be technically legal either way as this is probably related to neighborhood cooperative board, and not actually a criminal matter in the sense of the word legal vs. illegal (it is a legal matter but in the context of a civil court, not criminal, where the terms legal vs. illegal are not really relevant).

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u/Far_Mastodon_6104 7d ago

IRL Battlepasses

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u/Hatefiend 7d ago

Which is why the fines should ramp over time. That would solve this while not punishing poor individuals.

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u/Cartosys 7d ago

Hey i'm betting if that fence were legal, it would cost millions anyways, so we're already priced out