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Comment by nostromo | Hacker News Reader

I think government fines should be destroyed once collected. There’s no other way around the perverse incentives.

You could send it to the federal reserve balance sheet, or withdraw the funds and shred the cash. Or maybe apply it to the national debt since it’s so massive nobody would feel any benefit from the fine. Whatever, I don’t care.

But no benefit should befall anyone - the only goal should be to prevent bad behavior.

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I think literally destroying the cash would be a good solution except that the normal voter doesn't understand that this doesn't destroy value. So it would have serious rhetorical challenges. (Also, the value accrues to current holders of cash; not sure whether this might be too regressive/progressive relative to the "default" way that transfers are made.)

How do you propose bad behavior is punished without fines?

I do think the fine should be collected but the resulting cash should be destroyed by the federal reserve.

The goal should be safety and that’s it. Not a quick buck for local governments and traffic camera vendors.

Oh I misunderstood your original comment. What incentive do the towns/vendors have to setup these systems in that case?

The incentive is to make their streets safer. If they don't think the systems do that, then clearly they shouldn't be setting up the systems?

I don't know if you've noticed but governments rarely do the right thing for the sake of it.

The towns can still pay vendors, just as they pay vendors for lots of things. They just can't keep any of the ticket revenue generated.

The vendors can now just tip the town officials for choosing them.

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