In Norway, everyone can know how much you earn [video]

There's probably some court case about to happen to protect the rights of children because the Norwegian model is too severe.

Here's one example of international concern about the severity of the system: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36026458

Those parents hit their children, and so the parents need punishment for that bit of abuse, and the children need to be protected, but that protection should not be removal from the family because that's a significant interference with the rights of the child.

There is utterly no reason why most people should not most other people's income.

Unless they are public reps, or have government dealings - or there is some kind of 'public good' - than this is basically an abuse of human rights.

Why not make people's bank account statements or health records public?

This is normally illegal as it violates some integrity laws, but it is ok under current legislation if you have a "utgivningsbevis", something you need to register for to use your freedom of speech in published writing.

The site was poorly built and their full database was leaked nearly instantly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexbase

Why don't you just force everyone to put their bank account statements online?

Privacy is a fundamental human right.

This if upside down - in fact - it will reinforce class.

Do you know why your employer may ask in an interview: 'How much did you earn before'? Because they know if they offer you a little bit more than before, you'll probably take it - even if it's 'under market wages'.

Someone who earns very little can be held to that lower income, and there's also a social stigma to it: if you're a low-income earner - you will be judged as less valuable than high income earners.

People will judge the value of people by how much they earn - making it very difficult for working class people or students to move up.

Also - it's a deep transgression of human rights. Your finances are your private information, nobody should have the right to see them unless there is a case for 'public good' i.e. public officials etc.

Also - your idea of libertarian in this case is a little upside down - this is the opposite of classical liberalism. It's massive government overreach. Classical liberals would be very weary of having the government interfere in one's private life.

By your logic - your bank account, your investments, land holdings etc. etc. could feasibly be public knowledge.

All of those supposed 'good things' are intangible - there's no evidence they will happen (or are good). It's classic socialist folly: a 'do gooder idea that really is just more state control.

I have no doubt that in some cases, income could be public information - for example, state officials should have to publish certain kinds of information - especially stock ownership and business contracts so that we can ward off corruption.

But in general, we should be deferring to privacy.