NationStates Jolt Archive

After reading the responses in "Your occupation." thread, I started wondering whether how much money you make/have should be considered a private piece of information or not. From personal experience, it's also somewhat based on the culture. I come from Serbia where salary and money in general was a topic people always talked (mostly complained) about. Now I live in USA where money is pretty much a taboo and it's considered impolite to ask someone how much they make. Same thing is true for the grades in school. In Serbia grades are read out loud in front of the whole class or posted on public message boards, while in the US, grades are given out with more privacy and secrecy than credit card numbers.


Now a question for the NS community: What do you consider a proper way to deal with these subjects and why?


My answer: It's better to talk about both grades in school and money at work. In school, if you know who got a better grade on a test, also lets you know who is the best person to ask for help on the given subject so those who are better can help bring the average progress of the whole class up. They will also benefit from it, because by teaching others, their own knowledge gets stronger.

At work, by comparing your own performance and performance of the people who make more than you, you can improve and ask for the same higher salary. It is not in the interest of the company for people to know how much each worker makes, but it is definitely in the interest of the workers to know how much their work is worth. When you are buying a product or a service in a free market, you know how much each costs and based on the price you are able to select the best cost/value combination. I don't see why would it be any different if it is the price of your work. You should be aware of the market price of the work you do so you can ask for a fair compensation for your expertise and efforts.

Now a question for the NS community: What do you consider a proper way to deal with these subjects and why?

I generally don't talk about grades nor Money (in respect to how much I earn) because 1) it's none of their business and 2) it can generate bad feelings among co-workers and classmates.

I quite like knowing what others earn, purely for reasons of nosiness. But I don't think money and how much you earn is generally an acceptable topic of conversation.

Your income should be treated as private information.

I don't need to discuss how much I earn a month, less in a year because it's not vital that people know that about me. It makes no difference in my treatment to others.

It depends on the reason for discussing it really but I can't see many reasons other than nosiness, boasting or complaining

From Serbia to the US eh? I'm from Romania living in the UK, and I found pretty much the same thing.

I think there should be transparency in the case of both. In my experience in the classroom it does really motivate people to work harder and achieve more. I mean sure it does generate some envy, and I should know, as I've tended to be top of my class in almost everything, but I know of very few cases where people getting lower grades were discouraged by it, or too jealous to ask for my help. There may be a case for potential "self-esteem" damage, but overall I think transparency has clear benefits.

In the case of money the case is even stronger. I think the reason why in Anglo-American culture this is taboo is the general anti-unionist sentiment, due to historical factors etc. But as you say, the interests of the workers is to all share what they earn so they can all get a fair deal.

It doesn't matter to me either way. I don't understand why people would withhold it, but I don't like it when people boast about it either.

i think having my grades out at school was uninspiring. It just made me think I was working harder than I needed to.

As for money, if I don't think I'm earning much then I don't mind talking about it. But if I'm earning more than I think I should then I get very embarrassed and don't want to talk about it. I think that's normally the opposite to what most people think.

Your income should be treated as private information.

I don't need to discuss how much I earn a month, less in a year because it's not vital that people know that about me. It makes no difference in my treatment to others.

How much money you make is not a measure of your worth nor your personal quality. I don't see why is talking about money more offensive than talking about cars, houses, dogs, etc. that you own. All of these have some market value just like the money (you used to buy those things or earn from a job) does.

I just don't see it as a free market, when you are blind about your competition and how much your own work is worth in your most local environment, ie. your company.

In school here everyone knows roughly what grades their classmates get and there is a strong peer pressure on boys to get bad grades because if you get good grades then you're mommy's boy and a nerd. I hated that back in school and still dislike it as it's one of the reasons why the average grades among boys is much lower than among girls here.

Saleries are public information here. You can easily find out how much anyone is making, how much their house is worth and such without them knowing you checked. I like it that way, it's absolutely essential for a fair market to know your competitors' prices.

It's interesting to see the cultural divide. In the U.S., it has always been taboo to be elitist, even the very, very rich try to adopt a "common man" persona. I can see why that would make people uncomfortable discussing their earnings, whether they be grades or income. It could be seen as a sign of uppityness. I don't know why it's different in other places, though.

As to the OP's question: I don't mind discussing grades with friends, but I would never want them posted or announced to the general public. Same with income.

I think grades should be a more private thing, it's quite uncomfortable thing to discuss and it alienates the ones who get better or worse grades from the other pupils.
As for money, i don't mind people asking me how much i make or how much they make, but if they don't want to say i can understand that too.
money is a very, touchy subject. Education is also another touchy subject.
The two combined in one thread?
oh hell i'm out of here.

money is a very, touchy subject. Education is also another touchy subject.
The two combined in one thread?
oh hell i'm out of here.

What's really uncomfortable is when you're discussing how much you paid the teacher to get your grades.

What's really uncomfortable is when you're discussing how much you paid the teacher to get your grades.

hah, not that a teacher would accept a bribe from me, even if i had the money.
No i just struggled on getting mediocre results at best, i really hate exams such a poor system to determine how knowledgeable a person is.
not that it's any of your business.