Fin Receives Record $100,000 Traffic Ticket

Yahoo Most e-mailed; Reuters | 01-14-02

[mercy]

Monday January 14 10:30 AM ET
A $100,000 Speeding Fine??

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A senior executive of the world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia (news - web sites) is appealing a record $103,600 fine for speeding because his income has dropped, Finnish media and officials said Monday.

Millionaire and Harley Davidson enthusiast Anssi Vanjoki was caught racing his motorbike down a Helsinki street in October at 47 mph in a 31 mph zone, the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat reported.

Unlike in many other countries, Finnish traffic fines vary according to the offender's average income.

The fine was based on Vanjoki's 1999 income which was boosted by big options sales. But Vanjoki's income dropped drastically last year as Nokia's share price fell alongside other tech shares, making option sales uneconomical.

Van joki's fine is believed to be the largest ever traffic penalty in Finland, beating a fine of more than $71,000 handed down to Internet millionaire Jaakko Rytsola and one of $31,200 given to Vanjoki's colleague, Nokia president Pekka Ala-Pietila.

A Helsinki district court official confirmed to Reuters that Vanjoki's appeal would be heard on May 15.

[from occupied ga]

but the premiss that poor people make them selves poor thru life choices is not always true

I agree, of course it's not always true. There are exceptions on both sides (The Kennedy's who are rich, but never worked an honest day's labor in their lives, simply living on the plunder gather by bootlegger ancestor Joe come to mind) Likewise there are some poor people who work pretty darn hard, but on the whole how hard you work and how wisely (or foolishly) you spend your money determine your economic status.

I find disgusting the whole idea that the state (which when you come right down to it is just a collection of not very bright people who are driven much more than the rest of us by the need for power over others) should determine how the wealth of society is distributed. I find it particulary outrageous when the only role the state and its army of pompous arrogant bureaucrats had in creating wealth was to put hurdles in the way of productive elements of society.

[jokar]

Bump Bump Bump I hope the Tuesday crowd see's this.