3 ms·

Public companies? Sure. Private companies and individuals? No. They can have good reasons to keep their finances private. Just think about how much profiling wi

Public companies? Sure. Private companies and individuals? No. They can have good reasons to keep their finances private. Just think about how much profiling will happen about a person if you were able to look up their finances first. This applies to job interviews, sales processes, etc.

jacknews 7y ago
Yes a very good point about job interviews. But if salaries were transparent, there would be much less reason to beat about the bush regarding job offers - It would be quite clear what the going rate was, and how that related to executive pay, etc.
- literallycancer 7y ago
  Usually people who make a lot don't make most of it as salary.
  - jacknews 7y ago
    true, but the tax return would illuminate that
- leetcrew 7y ago
  instead of mandating that the financial details of individual people's lives be public, why not just require companies to publish a mean and stdev for each position's compensation? seems like that's all you really need to figure out if you're getting a fair deal.
socialdemocrat 7y ago
We have had this in Norway for decades already and it does not pop up as a problem the way you describe it. Part of that is because in addition to focus on transparency, we also promote privacy. Yes that may seem like an oxymoron, but here is a way to give you an idea: If I ask for you credit history or how much you earn or make in taxes, then you will be informed by the government in letter form, exactly what information I was given about you, as well as my name and address. That makes it a lot less attractive to snoop around in people's data. Hence in Norway it is mainly news organizations that do these kinds of things in relation to writing articles. Otherwise you make yourself look foolish. Also it is a bit odd that Americans should be so concerned with privacy as you privacy laws are rather weak to begin with. E.g. unlike Norway you can administer drug tests to any employee in the US or do criminal background checks on all new hires. That would be highly illegal in Norway. Only business which can prove to the government that such checks are vital to the type of the business they do would be allowed to do such checks. E.g. working with children. Basically the US focus its "privacy" laws on hiding information important to the wealthy, while those at the bottom of the latter have most of their sensitive information easily exposed.

jacknews 7y ago

Yes a very good point about job interviews. But if salaries were transparent, there would be much less reason to beat about the bush regarding job offers - It would be quite clear what the going rate was, and how that related to executive pay, etc.

literallycancer 7y ago
Usually people who make a lot don't make most of it as salary.
- jacknews 7y ago
  true, but the tax return would illuminate that
leetcrew 7y ago
instead of mandating that the financial details of individual people's lives be public, why not just require companies to publish a mean and stdev for each position's compensation? seems like that's all you really need to figure out if you're getting a fair deal.

socialdemocrat 7y ago

We have had this in Norway for decades already and it does not pop up as a problem the way you describe it. Part of that is because in addition to focus on transparency, we also promote privacy. Yes that may seem like an oxymoron, but here is a way to give you an idea: If I ask for you credit history or how much you earn or make in taxes, then you will be informed by the government in letter form, exactly what information I was given about you, as well as my name and address. That makes it a lot less attractive to snoop around in people's data. Hence in Norway it is mainly news organizations that do these kinds of things in relation to writing articles. Otherwise you make yourself look foolish. Also it is a bit odd that Americans should be so concerned with privacy as you privacy laws are rather weak to begin with. E.g. unlike Norway you can administer drug tests to any employee in the US or do criminal background checks on all new hires. That would be highly illegal in Norway. Only business which can prove to the government that such checks are vital to the type of the business they do would be allowed to do such checks. E.g. working with children. Basically the US focus its "privacy" laws on hiding information important to the wealthy, while those at the bottom of the latter have most of their sensitive information easily exposed.