Public tax returns would make it much easier for people to put pressure on others working toward financial independence.

In some poor communities, there's a strong ethic of sharing good fortune. That's good in many ways, but also makes it hard to climb out of poverty. More generally, lots of people have unbounded spending habits, and some will put a lot of pressure on friends/family if they find out they have any savings.

For what it is worth, every time I hear the phrase "working toward financial independence", it sounds like Newspeak to me. Let's call it what it is: almost everyone wants to make money because satisfying our various needs is part of the human condition.

Or it could mean "having made and then saved enough to make one's own way in a capitalistic economy instead of being at the behest of employers."

I think the phrase "financial independence" has a lot to offer as a description of a mode of living that poor communities generally do not display. A lot of poor people spend a sort of weighted average of the earnings of their family group -- if your personal income happens to be down right now, you can borrow money from someone who's having an up period. This is what winston_smith is referring to when he says "in some poor communities, there's a strong ethic of sharing good fortune", and it's a different concept than "money is good".

I've worked in the public sector, where salaries and benefits are public record. It's all on the website of several different media organizations. I can think of no harm that has resulted.

The downside in the private sector is that employees will find out how much they are getting screwed around with. Double downside when those employees figure out why.

Personal privacy? An interested party could learn a lot about someone from deductions: marital status, children, charitable contributions, etc. Not to mention income, which people have a variety of reasons for not sharing. Considering how many databases my face is probably linked to now and how good facial recognition technology is becoming, I'm not keen on tax records becoming another set of labels some real-time smart camera can attach to me walking down the street.

How about start-ups? If employers have access to your salary history in terms of a taxable compensation number but no access to information on what your options were this seems to suggest that employers will discriminate against start-up workers who traded off compensation, since their automated HR look-up would be unwilling to give someone the big raise related to not having equity and working in big corp.

I've never had stock options to list; wouldn't those also be assets you need to declare on taxes?

Only when you exercise the options.

OTOH job-seekers would know what current employees at the company make and demand similar compensation.

Same reason why I have an opaque fence instead of a transparent one.

I prefer for every random passerby to know full details of everything I do.

I think you missed a negation