It's not tricky at all. The government eats that $300 dollars for nothing, you could easily index those fines depending on how much money people actually have. But then you can't overtax the underclass with policing. I live in Canada, you know how much the police harasses me? Not at all. The expensive dinner is three meals, which comes out to around $7/meal; not really that expensive. America has a huge underclass made by shitty government policies that favor corporate interest and complexes like the military industrial complex or the prison industrial complex at the price of its people. It's as simple as that.

And they individualize all of those bad policies and make individuals pay for it, as if it's their fault. It's not.