[mikeash]

I don't see how credit card policies are arbitrary in anything like the same way traffic enforcement is. The policies are explicitly spelled out and in my experience they are enforced pretty much uniformly. Make a late payment, get charged. Pay less than the full amount on the card, get charged interest based on a rate that was listed when you signed up. It's easy to have a credit card and avoid the fees, and if you do something wrong then it's predictable what will happen.

With traffic citations, it's nearly impossible to go somewhere without violating the law in some way and even more impossible to do so safely. Your odds of getting caught are slim, and your odds of being punished depend entirely on the discretion of the officer who caught you.

Further, it's possible and not even very difficult to go through life without ever having a credit card, whereas it's impossible to go through life without ever being subject to traffic enforcement. (Even if you never drive or bike, there are crazy laws for pedestrians too.)