Paper Title

-- By AlexAsen - 23 Feb 2010

Intro

8th amendment

Natural disincentive to prison

Natural incentive to want to raise revenue

Send all fines to foreign aid

The good thing about fines

Constructive way for criminals to repay society

Prison is destructive of resources

Easy to administer

Allows for punishment of minor offenses

The bad thing about fines

Perverse incentive to make citizens criminal

Once reliant on the money, hard to rethink policy

Create self sustaining bureaucracies

Citizens lose respect for the law

Cops focus on crimes that can generate revenue

Drug seizures

Speeding

Fire hydrants

Require all fines to be directed to foreign aid

Government loses much of its perverse incentive to make its citizens criminal

Foreign aid is economically worthwhile, but politically unpopular, so it is underfunded

Pays long term economic dividends

Pays long term political dividends

Could be in the form of American manufactured goods

Morally

I don’t like to mix government and morals, especially when I can make efficiency arguments

Replace lost revenue with fees

Examples

License plates in UAE

License to speed

License to double park

License to do drugs and gamble

Benefits

Respects rule of law

Is transparent

Allows for education

The wealthier will have an advantage.

That’s ok

They already do

It is better to be honest

Graduated

Nokia guy

Wealth is better than income

Base price covers social cost; premium raises revenue