The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap Highlight

You’re paying the fine not for what you did, mind you, but simply out of recognition that you’d be paying a lot more if the state decided to be difficult and proceed with its messed-up case. This is the essence of Justice by Attrition. It’s like a poker game where after arrest, the accused sits down at the table with one chip. But the other player, the state, has a stack of chips fifty feet high. Will you play, or will you fold? Most everybody folds.