Tax authorities should use OAuth to allow people to share their data

Authorities (and really anybody) who sits on databases with data about people should use OAuth to allow people to share their data

Lets just look at what it could mean for distribution of welfare if the tax authorities allowed people to share how much they have / how much they have donated. (In for example USA and Sweden (and probably lots of others countries) the tax-authorities sits on a lot of data about how much people have donated to various welfare organizations.)

Those with little money may want to share the fact that they have little money

There are lots of sites popping up which addresses the problem of distributing welfare: Crowdfunding sites (like kickstarter.com), patreon.com, bountysource.com etc. One can also imagine sites for funding university studies, sites for helping unemployed, disabled or just simply poor people...

The donor will of course face the question: Am I really donating to someone who is poor? How much money do they really have?

This is how I think the tax authorities should use OAuth to let people share their data to what ever site they want.

If income data were available in the welfare-distribution-sites then a donor could also use those data for filtering (searching) for suitable receivers.

Those with lots of money may want to brag about how much they donate

There is definitely a lot of money behind which there is a will to donate. Consider: There is of course also a lot of normal people who also may want to brag a bit.

Imagine visiting someones Facebook page (or what ever social media page) and you would directly see that he/she donates whatever amount to whatever project.

Magazines like Forbes, makes lists of the richest people in the world. And local papers makes lists of the richest people in resp. country (or city).

I can imagine that these sites or other sites one day also creates lists of who has donated the most. And making list of "donated amount" / "total wealth" or "donated amount" / "taxed income".


Already Adam Smith (the father of modern capitalism) thought that vanity would be the best way to distribute welfare.