Fine.

Just read an article on some news site and a very interesting bit jumped out at me:

The fines in this country for flouting rules as a matter of day-to-day offences are ridiculously low. In fact, most netas and irresponsible fat-cats easily get away with paying amounts that are a little less than pocket-change for them.

No wonder lawlessness thrives in this country…

There might be an easy – ish solution to this, you know…

  1. Remind the middle class that existing fines for flouting rules are inconsequential. Also remind them that they (the fines) need to be substantial enough to really pinch the netas’ pockets.

  2. Ask them to suggest appropriate fine amounts for flouting rules. Make sure they come up with some good, pocket-pinching numbers.

  3. Incentivize anti-corruption behavior by awarding significant reduction in fines for reporting attempted corruption. (This significant reduction needs to be really significant for this idea to work, IMO.)

  4. Implement the proposed fine amounts and the anti-corruption measures simultaneously and uniformly across the country.

  5. Wait for the middle class to realize that the fines are going to apply to them as well.

  6. Sit back and watch the fun.

There are only two possible (major) outcomes, as I see it. One, we see a massive jump in law-abiding behavior. Two, we see a massive surge in corruption (OR poverty,) due to people still opting for corruption and not paying (OR opting for honesty and, indeed, paying) the fines.

Either way, we’ll end up becoming an example, I think…