In a warm autumn day in 1980 we were lined up as usual outside the barracks of the Norwegian Army's Infantry Officer School. It was Friday, and that meant two things: we got paid, and, if we were lucky, a couple of days off from the grueling training. One of my classmates, Johan, asked the commanding officer to please withhold 90% of his meager salary for taxes. We were all in shock, thinking poor Johan who would get paid next to nothing. There was no information privacy - we all knew how much each got paid, and seemingly how much some had withheld for taxes.
Fast forward to 2009. Around this time of year, my wife gets mad at me for checking up on the salaries of my old army officer buddies. Not only do I check up on their salaries, but also on their tax withholding, and their assets. This had been going on for years, until this year someone figured out how to link to public figures to Facebook, and now Norway is at the center of attention for its disclosure policies. The salary and tax figures have been posted on a public system, provided by the tax authorities, were a user (anyone) could query the database to find this information for someone else. The system also has a limited function where one can see the links between people in terms of organizational memberships (also public information). It took Facebook to get a debate around this issue: Someone figure out how to link all this information to Facebook with a key-click. Is this good, is it bad, is it ugly? I don't have the answers, but would like your insight!
And don't feel too bad for Johan, he is still listed as the richest person in Norway, with an annual income of about $10 million, and a net worth of over $2 billion, from which he paid $25 million in taxes for 2008. An example for the rest of us to follow !!!
Read more about it from MSNBC.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I understand that we live in a time were privacy is dead, as you have stated many times in class, but this could lead to some negative consequences for the individuals involved. The least the government could do is to give people an option as to weather or not their records are on the site. I would opt not to have my records on this site so that I would not give criminals reason to target me or my property.
ReplyDeleteThere is a counter point to this issue, people on Facebook give up their privacy all the time, putting up pics of their children letting people know their daily schedule and things of that nature. The difference between that and the tax records issue is that these people are choosing to put there info on the internet, not being forced by their government.
Overall, I believe that having this easy access to peoples tax records is a bad idea.
Wow, so I think if Johan is rich no wonder he would not mind the exposure or paying his taxes... Anyway, I think the society has put an emphasis on competition that it became also such a personal thing... Most people that are struggling don't usually like their business out there because as you will all know it is about just pretending most of the the time to be what we are not. Public Tax record will right away give us out and man credit will die! I am sure the Norwegian society is not hook onto credit and the lies that go with it. Good or Bad, I take the 5th on it!
ReplyDeleteHowever, if I could really be myself in a point of view here, I will say making things public will be a good idea. We need to get real again and be who we are!