Fines are unpopular? Well, duh

Authorities wrong to remove threat of penalties from waste management plan

I've been racking my brain, trying to think of a punishment that is - or has ever been - popular among offenders. It's hard to think of one. Punishments have a tendency to be deeply unpopular among those who are called to account.

Murderers rarely enjoy being sentenced to death or to decades of incarceration. Fraudsters hate having to give all that lovely money back, along with a bunch of their own. Naughty schoolboys rarely want to remain in the classroom after the school day ends so they can write on the blackboard 500 times "I must learn to concentrate". Unfaithful husbands almost never enjoy handing over to their ex-wives the keys to the homes and cars they paid for with hard-earned cash.