this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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A percentage of income still isn't equitable though.
If you're destitute a week's income means you starve.
If you're a millionnaire a week's income stings bit doesn't affect much.
If you're a billionnaire there is a good chance you don't technically have an income, and if you do you can lose half of your wealth without feeling it.
This is true, but you could still have a progressive fine. Very good point with the billionaire, though. They live in a completely different world, in terms of how their wealth flow works. Still, it seems like an alternative fine system could be worked out that would hit them hard.
The real solution is to remove the classes so high above everyone that the rules don't apply. This is a difficult problem only because we're talking about people who are so ludicrously wealthy a fine for literal hundreds of millions of dollars wouldn't make them homeless.
I agree. John Oliver once referred to billionaires as something like a bug in the structure of the system, and I wholeheartedly agree with that analysis. Unfortunately, they're a bug that's not so easily dislodged. Until then, designing systems that are able to deal with their existence is the best way to deal with them.
The billionaire might not feel it, but the money gained could be significant for all sorts of good things that help lift the burdon of the lower class.