• qantravon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      87
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      8 months ago

      I think it’s ok for them to have stocks, they just should be put into a blind trust to manage, and they shouldn’t be able to make any transactions outside of that for the duration of their term in office.

      • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        32
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        And the potential conflicts of interest should be described so their decisions can be analyzed against them if necessary.

      • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        21
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        8 months ago

        Nah, I think they’ve shown they cannot be responsible with such a privilege and it should be taken from them.

    • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      69
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Or, ya know, you could just make everyones publicly available by request along with earnings. Like they do in Finland.

      Strangely, this seems to lower the amount of corruption in government and non-government organisations.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        59
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        8 months ago

        America is weirdly fucking puritanical about disclosing income. One of the many anti-union cultural legacies.

        • cooljacob204@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          25
          ·
          8 months ago

          It would be one of the most impactful pro worker thing the government could do right now. So it won’t happen:(

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Hmm, should there be limits? I agree in principle that receiving public money as income should probably make your income records public knowledge, but… do we need to expose the personal finances of every park ranger? every military member? NASA engineers? Education board members? Or limit it specifically to elected positions? Would it then only apply to elected judges but not appointed ones? Every level - fed, state, county, city?

      The problem is, your tax records have enough information on them to expose you to identity theft. High-profile positions like the President will have enough people watching all their records to prevent any serious identity theft attempts, but setting up that kind of oversight for every public official would be incredibly difficult and expensive. Exposing some government positions to identity theft like this creates some pretty serious security concerns. Just exposing the address of a judge could put them at risk.

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        So you have two problems. Lack of financial transparency for public servants, and poor systems in place to mitigate identity theft.

      • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        8 months ago

        Yes we should release financials. They’re public servants, not our lords. We can keep addresses etc secure when necessary.

        • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          We can keep addresses etc secure when necessary.

          My point is that it would always be necessary. Are you familiar with the OPM data breach?

          Yes we should release financials. They’re public servants, not our lords

          Did you even read my comment? I’m not talking about “lords”, I’m talking about people who are just government employees.

            • Hule@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              8 months ago

              EU here. All public servants report their wealth every year.

              So they have to find other ways to hide it, mostly at relatives…

          • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            Government employees way too often forget they are public servants. The public has a right to know their salaries, to record them while they are working, and to expect respect and transparency.

      • p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Do you really think the president of the United States could be a victim of identity theft?

        Edit: oh, I misread. No, you don’t apparently. Answered my own question