Mother Jones

In Finland, a speeding ticket costs you more if you’re rich than if you’re poor. Fair enough, perhaps. “The thinking here is that if it stings for the little guy, it should sting for the big guy, too,” says the New York Times.

In any case, I already knew this. What I didn’t know was the formula:

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, currently 255 euros per month.

Then, that figure is multiplied by the number of days of income the offender should lose, according to the severity of the offense.

Mr. Kuisla, a betting man who parlayed his winnings into a real estate empire, was clocked speeding near the Seinajoki airport. Given the speed he was going, Mr. Kuisla was assessed eight days. His fine was then calculated from his 2013 income, 6,559,742 euros, or more than $7 million at current exchange rates.

Sadly for Reima Kuisla, he was clocked at 103 kph, which set him back a whopping 54,024 euros. However, if he’d been traveling just 3 kph slower, his fine would have been only 100 euros. No matter what you think of the social justice of this system, that does seem like a bit of a steep spike, doesn’t it?

Here in America, though, perhaps we have different priorities. What minor but annoying infractions would you like to apply this system to here in the good ‘ol USA?

Read more: 

The Law, In Its Finnish Majesty….