5 ms·

Actually, I don't see a scandal in this, all income should be in the public domain. In fact it is, in various contexts: public workers salaries are public in th

Actually, I don't see a scandal in this, all income should be in the public domain. In fact it is, in various contexts: public workers salaries are public in the US, in my country tax sheets are public record, you only need to identify yourself to get them.

spoonjim 5y ago
I don’t want my family members asking me for money saying “I know how much you make.” I don’t want criminals targeting me knowing my income.
- lkschubert8 5y ago
  Could it be public just linked to role and not name? Still has issues with roles that are unique enough to be identifying though.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - topkai22 5y ago
    In the US, we have reasonably good survey information at the occupation level, see https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm It’s big downsides are that it’s missing information about seniority/tenure, benefits and might struggle with uncommon pay methods like stock grants. However, with other resources like Glassdoor I feel you can get a decent picture of the pay situation for a given role in the US.
    - spoonjim 5y ago
      There's a big difference between someone saying "I see on LinkedIn you're a Staff Software Engineer at Google and you make at least $500K" and being able to brush them off with "don't believe everything you read" and actually having government tax records in hand.
- casualrandomcom 5y ago
  Does not sound as a healthy family dynamics. Healthy dynamics would be: they talk about their problems and you offer your help, based on your availability. When family actually asks for money I am happy to help all the more. I want criminals to leave me be because they know my income. I really don't understand the criminal's point: it's like people ordinarily live in rags to hide their availability. This is not how it works, as I can see: people typically try and show off more than what they really have, why aren't they afraid of criminals?
ghostwriter 5y ago
> all income should be in the public domain. Would you mind sharing your passport data and income numbers here so that it becomes public domain?
- frenchyatwork 5y ago
  Is it not obvious that one person's data being public (and the resulting information asymmetry) is a lot different than everyone's data being public?
  - ghostwriter 5y ago
    it's not obvious, could you clarify why does it make a difference whether there are more people sharing such data with you? For instance, if I believe that open-source projects have to be released with a public domain license (effective zero license), it doesn't matter if others want to follow my example, I can still apply my beliefs onto my projects to my own percieved benefit.
- alkonaut 5y ago
  This is the same argument as ”if you want higher taxes why don’t you donate money to the state?”, which is of course a non-argument. Taxes (and thus income) is public information in several countries and they don’t appear to be Orwellian hellscapes.
  - ghostwriter 5y ago
    > This is the same argument as ”if you want higher taxes why don’t you donate money to the state?”, which is of course a non-argument. why is it a non-argument if everyone knows that talking the talk is different from walking the walk? Higher taxes is not a means to itself, it has a specific goal of funding causes that you care about. Now, if there's a cause that you deeply care about, why wouldn't you donate your own money towards that cause as a matter of your exercising your free will instead of desiring that everyone else are unuiformly forced into following your ideals?
datavirtue 5y ago
When I was working in the public sector everyone flew off the handle when a local journalist requested all salary information and published it. Feathers flying everywhere for weeks. I loved it. The journalist wanted everyone in this poor community to know how many six figure incomes were being doled out at the college. Very comfortable stress-free lives for people with connections while everyone serving them was basically destitute. I was making $12 an hour building software at the time.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  Please someone come do this in New Orleans
xwolfi 5y ago
But can others get them ? I mean imagine I'm Youssuf Fofana (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Ilan_Halimi#Gang_of_Barbarians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Ilan_Halimi#Gang_o...) and I decide to be smart and kidnap for ransom only high earners in a low security district to get tolerable rewards, I could optimize kidnapping to get the lowest risk/reward ratio much more easily, as I d know exactly who earns how much. I dont mind telling people I trust my salary, but I mind telling people who want my money ...

spoonjim 5y ago

I don’t want my family members asking me for money saying “I know how much you make.” I don’t want criminals targeting me knowing my income.

lkschubert8 5y ago
Could it be public just linked to role and not name? Still has issues with roles that are unique enough to be identifying though.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- topkai22 5y ago
  In the US, we have reasonably good survey information at the occupation level, see https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm https://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm It’s big downsides are that it’s missing information about seniority/tenure, benefits and might struggle with uncommon pay methods like stock grants. However, with other resources like Glassdoor I feel you can get a decent picture of the pay situation for a given role in the US.
  - spoonjim 5y ago
    There's a big difference between someone saying "I see on LinkedIn you're a Staff Software Engineer at Google and you make at least $500K" and being able to brush them off with "don't believe everything you read" and actually having government tax records in hand.
casualrandomcom 5y ago
Does not sound as a healthy family dynamics. Healthy dynamics would be: they talk about their problems and you offer your help, based on your availability. When family actually asks for money I am happy to help all the more. I want criminals to leave me be because they know my income. I really don't understand the criminal's point: it's like people ordinarily live in rags to hide their availability. This is not how it works, as I can see: people typically try and show off more than what they really have, why aren't they afraid of criminals?

ghostwriter 5y ago

> all income should be in the public domain. Would you mind sharing your passport data and income numbers here so that it becomes public domain?

frenchyatwork 5y ago
Is it not obvious that one person's data being public (and the resulting information asymmetry) is a lot different than everyone's data being public?
- ghostwriter 5y ago
  it's not obvious, could you clarify why does it make a difference whether there are more people sharing such data with you? For instance, if I believe that open-source projects have to be released with a public domain license (effective zero license), it doesn't matter if others want to follow my example, I can still apply my beliefs onto my projects to my own percieved benefit.
alkonaut 5y ago
This is the same argument as ”if you want higher taxes why don’t you donate money to the state?”, which is of course a non-argument. Taxes (and thus income) is public information in several countries and they don’t appear to be Orwellian hellscapes.
- ghostwriter 5y ago
  > This is the same argument as ”if you want higher taxes why don’t you donate money to the state?”, which is of course a non-argument. why is it a non-argument if everyone knows that talking the talk is different from walking the walk? Higher taxes is not a means to itself, it has a specific goal of funding causes that you care about. Now, if there's a cause that you deeply care about, why wouldn't you donate your own money towards that cause as a matter of your exercising your free will instead of desiring that everyone else are unuiformly forced into following your ideals?

datavirtue 5y ago

When I was working in the public sector everyone flew off the handle when a local journalist requested all salary information and published it. Feathers flying everywhere for weeks. I loved it. The journalist wanted everyone in this poor community to know how many six figure incomes were being doled out at the college. Very comfortable stress-free lives for people with connections while everyone serving them was basically destitute. I was making $12 an hour building software at the time.

selimthegrim 5y ago
Please someone come do this in New Orleans

xwolfi 5y ago

But can others get them ? I mean imagine I'm Youssuf Fofana (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Ilan_Halimi#Gang_of_Barbarians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Ilan_Halimi#Gang_o...) and I decide to be smart and kidnap for ransom only high earners in a low security district to get tolerable rewards, I could optimize kidnapping to get the lowest risk/reward ratio much more easily, as I d know exactly who earns how much. I dont mind telling people I trust my salary, but I mind telling people who want my money ...