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A comment on 10% of households pay more than 80% of taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. Parent comment

Re:10% of households pay more than 80% of taxes on alcohol a... by ericmay on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @01:45PM (#29003583)
In the parking ticket case I think it's interesting and not clear-cut b/c on one hand you have the "treat all equal before the law" and on the other hand you have desired outcomes.

It's hard for me ethically not to fall on the side of treating everyone equally under the law versus trying for specific outcomes. If you wanted to go for outcomes can you help me distinguish why you wouldn't sentence a poor person to lesser jail time or insurance payout (car wreck) or w/e lesser amount than a rich person? Does a wealthy person have more to lose by murdering someone? Less? I just don't think it's clear cut but for my part I'm definitely open minded on it. It's kind of the equality of opportunity versus equality of outcomes thing - I'm definitely on the equality of opportunity camp with probably a base versus equality of outcome.

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Re:10% of households pay more than 80% of taxes on alcohol a... by kennywinker on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @02:24PM (#29004210)
"treat all equal before the law" could easily mean a fine that has an equal impact. Is it really equal treatment to fine someone in a way that jeopardizes their ability to pay rent and fine someone else in a way that annoys them slightly?
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Re:10% of households pay more than 80% of taxes on alcohol a... by ericmay on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @03:36PM (#29005200)
Idk. Is it? I don’t think there is a clear cut answer. Should the poor serve shorter jail terms since they make less money and therefore have less time post-jail to accumulate lost earnings?
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