There’s something in the Finnish way of doing things that gets me boiling every now and then. It’s the public tax records that for some reason is taken as a right in our society. For those unfamiliar with the system we have here in Finland it goes something like this. The major newspapers publish the people who pay the most taxes, both income and capital gains tax, to all the public to see. Why is this bad?

The reason is simple, we have enough jealousy in our society that unfortunately does not work in a motivating manner to improve. These tax records simply grow that jealousy and thus increase unhappiness in our society. One “evidence” of this is the fact that Helsingin Sanomat had a quick poll on their site (and I do recognize this does not qualify as an academic poll) and the question asked weather the wealthy people pay enough tax in our society. Below is the status of the poll with a little over 5000 answers.

Another interesting question to ask is that how much is enough? I have no envy towards rich people enjoying their wealth and find the above answer just sad. Just to be clear, I’m not one of the rich people either – I voluntary let go well over a third of my salary to go and run my own company. However, I do realise that a few rich people pay a lot of taxes and thus easily cover for a lot larger crowd of people not so well off.

I don’t know if I’m making any sense here, kind of tired from a long start to the week. One thing is clear though, I’d be very happy to see these tax records kept for the purpose of the government only. I mean how many would like to see your medical records become public?