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Comment by SimpleMinds | Hacker News Reader

I kind of agree with a harsh, strict punishment for the "crime" like this in country where train travel is abundant and often very crowded. There are many people who would be willing to pay the fine on top of the price of the standing ticket (the sitting ones are sometimes very very, very hard to get), while not being able to use trains again would definitely stop people from having an attitude of "I have money and you cannot do anything to me"

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In Germany this is solved in a different way. Many punishment don't have a fixed price, but use Tagessatz as a base which is an equivalent of the daily income for the person. In the end, everyone is hurt the same, regardless of the income.

There was a famous case few years ago that one famous football player paid half a million euro fee for driving without a license.

I guess introducing similar system would be more fair than going to this drastic measure like not allowing to ride a train forever and ever more.

I agree but for that to work you would have to first ensure that everyone is reporting their income accurately. I believe that right now there is still a lot of grey zone and until that phase is sorted, the Tagessatz wouldn't work. That's why the temporary solution of banning people makes sense to me.

Isn't a mayor part of not reporting income to make sure officials don't take a closer look into your case? Having a judge see you don't have income while living a lavish live is probably the last they want...

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