Ask anyone what they earn and you're bound to get an indignant "What I make is nobody's business but my own!" Even here on this board, where most of us are anonymous handles, I doubt if any of us would volunteer that information.

But is it really no one else's business? Most people love to tell you what they make indirectly, by buying expensive houses, furnishings, cars and clothes, even toys like boats; items that communicate clearly and publically "See, I make lots of money." People will often overextend themselves financially and even borrow to do this. And of course, in order to go into debt, you have to tell your creditors every single detail of your financial life. Does this make any sense?

It can be argued that a truly prudent person would keep the extent of his assets a secret, if for no other reason than security, to prevent thieves and con men from targeting them. But the reality is just the opposite. Most people brag about their affluence, even exaggerate it. When you think about it, the one person you definitely should try to keep a secret from how much you make is the taxman, and he already knows (unless you are a tax cheat).

No, there is another reason why we are so careful to keep our income secret: it is cultural. We have been taught that this is normal and natural, that any deviation is unacceptable, and that idea is reinforced constantly until it has become a law of nature, not to be questioned. So the question remains, why are we being brainwashed like this? Why does society go to so much trouble to keep us all quiet about our income when the natural human tendency is to declare it publicly through the merchandise we buy and the way we live?

The answer is simple. It is inconvenient for our employers. They cannot afford for their workers to compare pay stubs, it might reveal how arbitrary and illogical the criteria are for determining salaries. In many cases, it might even reveal how grossly unfair they are.

In the past, when most everyone in a factory made the same wage, this may have not been much of an issue. When an employee was given a more responsible position, everyone knew a raise went with the job. There was no reason to jealously keep this information secret. My own family was working class, and even though I was born after the dismantling of the factory system in my town's main industry, it was part of family lore. The cigar factories all paid comparable wages for specific tasks, everyone knew how much their mates earned. In fact, that was the incentive to get you to learn a more skilled trade in the factory craft hierarchy. (There were about a dozen highly skilled trades required to mass produce cigars by hand). When the cigar making machines came, this all went away.

The great secretiveness concerning who makes how much was never really part of my uprbringing, my culture. Oh sure, I picked up on it real quick, as did everyone in my family, but we knew exactly why it was such a big deal in our new office and service jobs. It's not that it "wasn't anybody's business" how much the boss paid us, it was now the boss's business to make sure we didn't find out what any one else made. In a free enterprise system, after all, knowledge of the market is essential in order for the consumer to make meaningful choices. This was knowledge that had to be kept hidden in order to exert and keep control.