6 ms·
That is a very naive and idealistic position. Governments often and rightly have genuine reasons for keeping things secret - as do other institutions, businesse
by retube 13y ago
That is a very naive and idealistic position. Governments often and rightly have genuine reasons for keeping things secret - as do other institutions, businesses and indeed individual people.
- zxcdw 13y agoApart from "obvious" national security in the name of TERRORISM[1], what are such reasons? [1]: http://www.gwern.net/Terrorism%20is%20not%20about%20Terror http://www.gwern.net/Terrorism%20is%20not%20about%20Terror
- scarmig 13y agoNegotiations. When you go to a new job and they tell you "How much do you make at your current position? Tell us, you have nothing to hide." what do you do?
- erre 13y agoGoing on a tangent here, if they also assume this stance - meaning, they'll tell you everyone else's salaries - it can be quite interesting. I can't quite find where I first saw this, but googling a bit brings up a few interesting example. For instance, http://99u.com/articles/15527/the-age-of-salary-transparency http://99u.com/articles/15527/the-age-of-salary-transparency
- sgustard 13y agoYou say, tell me how much all your current employees make. Don't negotiate with someone who holds all the cards.
- hackula1 13y agoIf you are playing to win, you tell them you currently make whatever salary you are seeking. When they ask you what sort of salary you need, say something along the lines of "Obviously, I want to take a step forward, but I am pretty flexible, so if you can at least match my current pay, then I would be open to accepting". While this tactic does fall into the grey area of morality, it is quite effective.
- eruditely 13y agoDont companies pay equifax and such for employee salary data? I'd be careful on this one.
- patmcc 13y agoThis is where you say "my total compensation is around $x". To me, "total compensation" includes pay, benefits, bonuses, the dollar value I put on how short my commute is, rough cost of free food in the office, how nice my chair is, etc. etc. I also don't think they'll be able to do an equifax/transunion lookup without your permission. And it's perfectly reasonable to say no to that, as credit checks are bad for your credit.
- hackula1 13y ago"Well, I guess Eqifax is not that accurate" and "Oops. Thanks for letting me know I don't want to work here" would both be reasonable responses. Most companies are not doing this.
- bzmwillemsen 13y agoWith respect to government contracts: It would really hurt a company if their detail pricing scheme was released, as a competitor could easily undercut if they had access to that information. With respect to court documents: It could result is someone getting hurt or a mis-trial due to outside influences (ie. Rob Ford video) There are obviously many reasons...
- cbr 13y agoIt would really hurt a company if their detail pricing scheme was released, as a competitor could easily undercut if they had access to that information If every company's pricing were public, wouldn't we just have healthy competition?
- chc 13y agoWe would have competition. How healthy it would be is less certain.
- danielweber 13y agoGovernment contracts are usually public information already. More than once I've been at a company that sold something to a government agency, and the agency first had to publish what exactly they were buying and give someone else the ability to put in a better bid.
- mpyne 13y agoContracts are usually public. Each companies bid for the contract is not, and in fact there are laws against government contracting officers letting such information become public, at least while the contract negotiation phase is still ongoing.
- davidw 13y agoObvious one comes to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Federal_Witness_Protection_Program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Federal_Witness_P... It's not hard to think of others.
- derekp7 13y agoI REALLY hope they keep my personal login credentials for various gov web sites secret. Along with any other personal information they have on file.
- ssmoot 13y agoHe/She is clearly referring to Whistle Blowers. All the ridiculous, obtuse comments just to feel superior. If you can't attack the actual message, then impeach the character? Grow up.
- danielweber 13y ago"governments will become incapable of keeping anything a secret" I assume he meant what he said.
- dabernathy89 13y agoTheir language clearly indicates that they mean any information.
- Eye_of_Mordor 13y agoUnfortunately governments are obliged to reveal their 'secrets' despite any misgivings, since they are acting on our behalf. They know this, they don't like this and they have utterly failed us.
- ninkendo 13y ago> Unfortunately governments are obliged to reveal their 'secrets' despite any misgivings What if the electorate decides that a government should keep certain things secret from them? Directly at the ballot box or through their representatives? I think in the US we have done so when we allow or congressmen to continue to renew the patriot act. For good or ill, the government keeping things secret for national security purposes is something we (through our votes, and through our congress) have asked them to do. Maybe we should stop doing so.
- g8oz 13y agoThe electorate has done no such thing. The expansion of institutionalized secrecy in government by our representatives is an example the principal-agent problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal–agent_problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal–agent_problem
- hackula1 13y agoFine, don't shut down the programs, but is it too much for the people paying for these programs to ask about their nature and to be informed of the accountability breaches? Every citizen has a right to know the nature of what we are doing (how else can we decide whether or not we want to live with the trade offs or not?), and to be informed when something goes off the rails on the ethics side of things. This is a pretty low bar to set.
- fragsworth 13y agoThe right to know what we're paying for. Probably the best way of putting it. How can we call ourselves a democracy when money is taken from us and we don't know where it goes? It seems like we're voting for people, but there's no discourse about the secret stuff.