Because you gave a thumbs-up to this:
So would you also like to see somebody suffer financial ruin and the prospect of years in prison for driving without a current MoT certificate, even though the car is perfectly roadworthy? It's the same principle.
Which is why I like the lower-cost (if assets are seized to fund prisons) approach of making the price of being caught so hideous that nobody would dare, even if the odds of getting caught were very small.
...
... and destroying the lives of people who decide to ignore the law.
OK, so you have never broken the law, not even once ? You've never done 30.1MPH in a 30mph zone, you've never parked for 61 minutes having paid only for one hour, never ever been a day late paying a bill, ...
Think carefully before you answer. Think very carefully indeed.
If you genuinely believe that the cost of breaking the law should be a completely ruined life, then as PBC was getting at - you should believe that it should apply to breaking the law<period> As you are so fond of pointing out, we can't pick and choose what rules & regulations we want to obey.
Or is it a case of breaking the law should result in having your life ruined - as long as it only applies to activities you don't like ? I see plenty of that around.
You see, I believe that the law should set out expectations, and if you break it then there should be penalties but those penalties should be proportionate - and relate to both the actual harm caused and the potential harm. Lets take a hypothetical case of an electrician who is fully qualified, experienced, does great work, tidy CUs - the model of a brilliant sparky. He's let his registration lapse, perhaps through oversight, and a week later is pulled up for doing work while not registered. According to your model of justice, he gets locked up for 6 months and can never work in the sparky business again - all for what is really nothing but the absence of a bit of paper and no harm was even potentially caused to anyone. In my model of justice, he gets a stern telling off, renews his registration, and carries on providing a good and safe service to the public.
The charlatan who calls himself a sparky because he knows which wire goes where in a 13A plug, has no training, does shoddy and dangerous work, and never had any intention of registering - well he deserves a stiff sentence, one that will set an example, but not one that will prevent him paying his way in the future.