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Comment by downandout | Hacker News Reader

Don't worry, because this didn't come remotely close to "destroying a national park". I realize that Northern California is the natural habitat of the insane tree hugger, and that many joints have been smoked while pondering Sean Parker's evil deforestation plot. But that report found no evidence of actual, permanent damage to anything. It asserted that activities of this general nature, carried to extremes, carry the possibility of some amount of damage. His temporary, aesthetic changes did nothing and no fine should have been levied - certainly not $2.5 million that will be used to perpetuate this particular brand of insanity.

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I understand your point but no fine should be levied? This kind of behaviour should be discouraged and a fine is entirely appropriate to discourage it.

> This kind of behaviour should be discouraged and a fine is entirely appropriate to discourage it.

I would actually go so far as to say that the fine should have been much bigger. This is something that annoys me about tickets being a fixed amount: is it really a true deterrent to bad behavior when the fine is so negligibly small that you basically don't give a damn? The purpose of punishment is to reform bad behavior, bad behavior that is dangerous to others. When you're going 80+ kph above speed limit you're not just putting your own life at danger, you're putting other innocent people in the vicinity at danger too. A ticket should not be $400 at that point when you're a billionaire, it should be $4 million. $400 is likely not enough forceful enough as a corrective measure. In this instance I'd have been happier if the fine Parker incurred was above $25 million.

They do that with traffic tickets in Finland and Switzerland. You've probably heard of the $290,000 speeding ticket levied against a wealthy Swiss guy.

http://marcfbellemare.com/wordpress/2012/02/speeding-fines-t...

(The link is an interesting discussion of relative vs absolute risk aversion, with regard to tickets.)

Either that or take something more valuable from them, like their time. Make them do community service!

I would think that community service with no way of paying your way out of it would be a better deterrent than fines.

You would think that. I would think that too.

History and celebrities have shown that when the courts think that, these people -still- don't think the rules will apply to them and will either lie about it, do self-serving "community" service, make excuses about how they can't because they are too high profile or busy, or out and out bribe people, either to do the work for them, or to fraudulently attest to their service.

From the findings: "The unpermitted development has thus impacted the existing redwood forest habitat and has likely caused sedimentation of Post Creek."

The fact that he brazenly (and illegally) modified land designated for public use is pretty bad as well. Imagine if I decided to shoot a porno right in the lap of the Lincoln Memorial, setting up lights and cheap sets and basically making the whole monument look like a joke, ruining what would have been a solemn and sacred space for the general public.

Of course, I would also be shot by the guards there. There's no similar guardian for that particular part of the Redwood forest.

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