Had an interesting tax related thought this morning. It was mentioned in a newsgroup article I read this morning that speed camera fines suck because they're purely revenue raising. I pointed out that if you don't speed then it's not a problem.

However, I do believe that speed cameras are revenue raising, but is this really a problem. Currently our tax system punishes/capitalises on people doing smart things with their life/money. Investment and superannuation seem to be used to increase revenue to our governments.

This seems a little backwards to me, because the incentive to do clever things like this is lessened because of these taxes. Surely a fairer way of taxing would be to penalise those who do unwise things, such as speeding and other dangerous pasttimes.

Any thoughts?