You're listening to Comedy Central. Wow. Across America, police are handing out one hundred and twelve thousand speeding tickets every day. Yeah, that's a lot of tickets. I'm like, where are they find the time to shoot people? And those tickets aren't going away anytime soon because these fines aren't just to punish you. It turns out local governments need that money to keep the lights on. Traffic stops aren't always about safety or hunting contraband or crime. Some cities use traffic
stops to raise money. The cities and counties that are trying to use these schemes trying to use these fines and fees to balance their budget are basically charging a backdoor tax to poor people. In the South, municipalities strapped for cash of in targeting the most vulnerable citizens or primarily black and living under the poverty line. In Missouri, some of these municipalities generate anywhere from twenty to forty
percent of their total revenue by finding citizens. That's right, These cities are filling their budgets on the backs of poor people. Yeah. So the next time a cop asked, do you know why I pulled you over? You can be like, let me guess the mail wants a standing desk and getting fined it's bad enough, but then they tack on a bunch of extra fees, payment plan fees, collection fees. One county even has a fifty one dollar processing fee. So it costs you fifty one dollars to
give me a thirty dollars ticket. How about you not giving me the ticket and you just saved yourself twenty one dollars. And let's say, and let's say you're like a lot of people and don't have all this money just laying around while in fourteen states, your ass might be going to jail. Yeah, you heard me right. Fourteen states will send you to jail for being poor. And if you want to know what states those are, it's
probably the ones you're thinking of. And guess what, you could come out of jail owing even more because they actually charge you another fee for going to jail. Like that's so messed up. Wait wait, man, I'm in jail because I couldn't pay, and then you're charging me more for being in jail. You know I couldn't pay, That's why I was in the first place. But do you think I hit the lottery while I was in jail. But you know what, it doesn't have to be this way.
A lot of other countries never find you more than you can afford. They find you based on your income. This makes it more fair since billionaires aren't paying the same fines as people who work at the dollar store. And if you're thinking that must lead to some expensive ass tickets, you'd be right. A man in Finland gone con speeding, and boy did he have to pay up. Listen to that. A finished millionaire got a fifty eight thousand dollars fine for going sixty four miles per hour
in a fifty zound. Well, that seems kind of crazy. Here over in Finland, speeding tickets are based on your income. The highest ticket so far was one hundred and three thousand dollars, a ticket given to a Nokia executive who made roughly fourteen million that year. I'll tell you what, I tell you what we did that here that will make me start putting those quarters in the parking meeting. Look, if the ticket is meant to punish you, it should feel like a punishment. Thirty dollars for a rich person
is not a punishment. Rich people don't even know money goes that low. If you ask death Baso for thirty dollars, he'll be like, do I just ripple corner off of this one hundred dollars bill? So long story, short, stop using four people as your little take apenniesar, especially over a small ship. If anything, we should be doing the opposite.
I propose every highway should have a broke lane. Do what you want, do what you want to do in the broke lane, but the tail of light, expired registration, dangling muffle hook cas you get hall ass into broke lane because you gotta get from your second job to your third job. I don't care, do whatever it takes. But if you get caught into broke lane talking about well, I'm trying to get to my squash game at the country club, then the officer can say, whoa, I'm gonna
have to chase you. And then Electricity has a fifty one dollar process and feet. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcast. Watch The Daily Show weekday to eleven ten central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Clubs. This has been a Comedy Central podcast