4 ms·

And if they handed out $50 tickets for fare evasion, how much revenue would that generate?

by zaroth 8y ago

free652 8y ago
It's already a $100 fine: http://web.mta.info/nyct/rules/TransitAdjudicationBureau/rules.htm http://web.mta.info/nyct/rules/TransitAdjudicationBureau/rul...
- zaroth 8y ago
  NYC.gov says 14,000 summons ($100 fine) in Q4. Who knows what percentage of those are paid. But relative to the size of the problem that’s a pittance.
bdcravens 8y ago
You almost always have the option of going to jail to pay fines, typically at $50-100/day served. Was on the train here in Houston yesterday, and this very topic came up as some folks were chatting with a transit officer onboard. Some said they'd always sit in jail rather than pay a fine.
kristopolous 8y ago
The person who can't afford $2 is now going to pay $50? From where? How?
- failrate 8y ago
  Have them spend a shift cleaning garbage. Done.
  - geofft 8y ago
    I see we're leaning real hard into that "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" thing.
    - failrate 8y ago
      Okay, good point. I was being far too glib.
  - uxp100 8y ago
    We could give them money for that (just to take it away again), but they probably won't produce $50 of value without getting someone else to stay home who also has debts to pay. So I guess this is more of a belief in the value of work thing. Which is OK, but I think this would have more value if we could then offer offenders a chance to continue to clean and then earn money, but we don't have jobs to offer them after we made up this cleaning one as a punishment.
  - arcticbull 8y ago
    This is the epitome of undercutting good hard-working American jobs. This is why prison labor is so toxic. If it's bad to have illegal aliens sneaking into the country and taking jobs why isn't forcing people into unpaid jobs? The weirdest thing for me is seeing the same people advocate for both.
slyall 8y ago
If you caught every instance of someone breaking a law then the fines can be pretty low. Eg If you knew that there was a 99% chance that you'd be fined every time for minor traffic offenses (going 5k over the speed limit, failure to indicate, etc) then the fine could be $20 and nobody would do it. Instead the fine is much higher but only a small proportion are caught. It also works for major offenses. Longer jail sentences don't deter crime as much as the likelihood of being caught.

And if they handed out $50 tickets for fare evasion, how much revenue would that generate?

by zaroth 8y ago

And if they handed out $50 tickets for fare evasion, how much revenue would that generate?

It's already a $100 fine: http://web.mta.info/nyct/rules/TransitAdjudicationBureau/rules.htm http://web.mta.info/nyct/rules/TransitAdjudicationBureau/rul...

zaroth 8y ago
NYC.gov says 14,000 summons ($100 fine) in Q4. Who knows what percentage of those are paid. But relative to the size of the problem that’s a pittance.

bdcravens 8y ago

You almost always have the option of going to jail to pay fines, typically at $50-100/day served. Was on the train here in Houston yesterday, and this very topic came up as some folks were chatting with a transit officer onboard. Some said they'd always sit in jail rather than pay a fine.

kristopolous 8y ago

The person who can't afford $2 is now going to pay $50? From where? How?

failrate 8y ago
Have them spend a shift cleaning garbage. Done.
- geofft 8y ago
  I see we're leaning real hard into that "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" thing.
  - failrate 8y ago
    Okay, good point. I was being far too glib.
- uxp100 8y ago
  We could give them money for that (just to take it away again), but they probably won't produce $50 of value without getting someone else to stay home who also has debts to pay. So I guess this is more of a belief in the value of work thing. Which is OK, but I think this would have more value if we could then offer offenders a chance to continue to clean and then earn money, but we don't have jobs to offer them after we made up this cleaning one as a punishment.
- arcticbull 8y ago
  This is the epitome of undercutting good hard-working American jobs. This is why prison labor is so toxic. If it's bad to have illegal aliens sneaking into the country and taking jobs why isn't forcing people into unpaid jobs? The weirdest thing for me is seeing the same people advocate for both.

slyall 8y ago

If you caught every instance of someone breaking a law then the fines can be pretty low. Eg If you knew that there was a 99% chance that you'd be fined every time for minor traffic offenses (going 5k over the speed limit, failure to indicate, etc) then the fine could be $20 and nobody would do it. Instead the fine is much higher but only a small proportion are caught. It also works for major offenses. Longer jail sentences don't deter crime as much as the likelihood of being caught.