Late fees are a great motivator for procrastinators like me. DVDs are $1/day. Returned two DVDs three days late and the $6 charge was enough to make me remember to bring all materials back on time! The worst part was that we never found the time to watch them.
My eleven year old requests and checks out stacks of books every week. Early in her card holder days she had late fees one time, I made her pay me back and she has been diligent about getting books returned ever since.
Somebody made an arbitrary rule, and a little girl was manipulated into conforming to it. Accomplishing...what?