That said, your point isn’t wrong. $10,000 is nothing in this context. Criminal fines should be in direct proportion to a person’s income. Also, statutes, when they mention monetary value, should peg that value to invlation, income, or some other metric that scales with time. We have SOOOOO many laws on the books that use ridiculous numbers by modern standards but were reasonable at the time they were enacted.
We have SOOOOO many laws on the books that use ridiculous numbers by modern standards
I think the most egregious ones are thresholds for felony theft. A lot of states haven’t adjusted the thresholds in many decades. New Jersey for example, theft of something valued 200-500 bucks is a class 4 felony and 500-75000 is a class 3.
So like, in that particular case, someone gets in a heated argument with their roommate who owes them money, takes their Playstation 5 as collateral, they might face the same charges as someone who breaks into a construction site and steals an entire trailer full of power tools
I hope the judge presiding would realize that fining the richest man in the world $10,000 would be like fining me one cent for a parking ticket and expecting me to have learned my lesson. Jail time should absolutely be on the table all things considered.
Ahh… the cost of doing business.
… or imprisoned not more than 5 years …
That said, your point isn’t wrong. $10,000 is nothing in this context. Criminal fines should be in direct proportion to a person’s income. Also, statutes, when they mention monetary value, should peg that value to invlation, income, or some other metric that scales with time. We have SOOOOO many laws on the books that use ridiculous numbers by modern standards but were reasonable at the time they were enacted.
I think the most egregious ones are thresholds for felony theft. A lot of states haven’t adjusted the thresholds in many decades. New Jersey for example, theft of something valued 200-500 bucks is a class 4 felony and 500-75000 is a class 3.
So like, in that particular case, someone gets in a heated argument with their roommate who owes them money, takes their Playstation 5 as collateral, they might face the same charges as someone who breaks into a construction site and steals an entire trailer full of power tools
I know, I rolled my eyes at that part too.
I hope the judge presiding would realize that fining the richest man in the world $10,000 would be like fining me one cent for a parking ticket and expecting me to have learned my lesson. Jail time should absolutely be on the table all things considered.