If the fines were cheaper I think enumerable americans would opt for that. To save endless hours of court or pay like $250-500 for a default judgement? Hell you can get a simple signature loan at a credit union for that.

Sounds like traffic court?

Pretty much. I mean is that so bad? Who cares that the rich can pay their way through it. That's normal. They have more money than time typically anyway. To me though, this just sounds like lower income types who are avoiding it. They also value their time but don't have money to "buy it back" so to speak. Essentially it'd be a tax on people committing crimes. Is that really such a ridiculous system as opposed to a criminal justice such as ours?

I'm not opposed to your view, though it calls to mind that many with the money to pay fines don't look at those activities as bad/illegal/criminal, but simply taxed (as you say).

I'd prefer we did away with the 'crime' aspect of it all and just say "you can park anywhere in the city you want -- designated or not -- for about $1000/hr, and after 10 hours or more, your car may be moved to a more secure location for storage at a service fee of another couple $1000". If we're supposed to be a capitalist society, I'd think we could be honest about it and just hang price tags on behavior communities don't want but that don't belong in any book detailing the punishments for various kinds of murder.

That's a false dichotomy. There are more options than 'everyone is guilty' and 'there's an enormous legal machine grinding through low-level, non-violent offenders'.

And, ah, most of the people showing up to those court summons aren't there to plead not guilty. They are there to say that they are really sorry, and to ask the judge to not punish them as much as he could.

That's almost exactly the opposite of what I had in mind. I don't believe in "low-level offenses" as anything but tools to perpetuate inequality and would love to see the concept eliminated. Any offense benign enough to be considered "low-level" is not indicative of bad intention to me, because I assume any person choosing to do evil will go big or go home :)

What should we do about actions that aren't malicious, but are nevertheless harmful or put others at risk? Littering, mild traffic violations, etc.

I don't know, pretty sure the teenagers racing their cars on the road near my house at 3 in the morning aren't late to work.

That sounds rediculous. Plenty of rich people are assholes too. If anything, i think the sterotype would be entitled rich (or at least not poor) people who think the rules don't apply to them are more likely to commit "low-level" offenses.

I have millionaire asshole neighbors who drive their firraris at 50mph through my 15mph street. Their kids leave their litter on the street where they drink & do drugs.

Not being an asshole does not take effort, it takes basic respect.