Only in Finland

Yes, and if you’re 19 and jobless, you can speed all you want. Maybe dad, who earns 100K, will even pay the bill. After all, you were driving his sports car when you were ticketed.

Also, it’s not a bad deal if you own a business. Just put the income in your wife’s name. Then you can speed no matter how much you earn. No worries.

Meanwhile, everyone’s privacy rights get violated.

What comes to Police having the information I really don’t mind. They only use it if needed, not out of curiosity. And I quite like the system on speedin tickets. It prevents people buying of their crimes. No matter how rich you’re, getting the ticket still hurts. And even if you are very poor, it won’t make you hungry for months.

You can do it better by snooping his tax return? Yeah, right.

Yeah sure, we know exactly how good those “independent” accounting firms are. Two words: Enron. Subprime.

I agree with your underlying premise, that salaries of public officials are different from ordinary people. However, making salaries and wealth of politicians public is probably a disincentive for good people to run for public office. After all, even if a person is totally honest in his business activities, Who wants their private information made public?

Of course, that question is mute in “brainwashed” Finland. But in the rest of the world, it probably would affect who goes into politics and who doesn’t.

My point: Politicians can have their accounts audited by independent accounting firms, who are trained to spot ‘conflicts of interest’—and they are held responsible for their opinions.

There is no reason for the normal public to know about politicians’ personal information. It would only mean that
people who can effectively hide their wealth decide to run for office — and there are plenty of legitimate reasons to keep one’s financial information private.

You have a nice website, Sirkuspelle. I agree with your direction. Finland needs to change, if it wants to be taken seriously regarding international affairs. In my opinion, this system doesn’t belong in a modern country.

I think this is OK because:
1. They sign a letter of consent before assuming office. They have a choice to keep their privacy if they want.
2. They are public officials, with salaries paid by tax money. They should serve the public and not take money from them.

In Finland, there is no consent, no choice, no right to object, etc. And the purpose of it is tabloid entertainment.

So the salaries of MPs should be public but the kickbacks they receive from lobbyists should not. Priceless.

But, what SHOULDN’T be public is their personal finances or income received from other sources - investments, side jobs, etc. Clearly, that’s private information.

Furthermore, tax record information DOESN’T give a true picture of what a person earns at his job, That’s because all ‘earned’ income is aggregated under the heading ‘ansiotulo’; you can’t distinguish between job income and side income.

So, people who think open tax records enables them to spy on their co-workers’ salaries have a very immature understanding of how things actually work.

I agree that the Finnish tax record system needs to stop. As Sirkuspelle indicates, there are legal, moral and practical reasons. This type of human rights violation doesn’t belong in modern society. It especially does not belong in the EU.