Do you have a cite for this assertion?
Not true. It’s a US thing, not a California thing, & you can use a passport or passport card (which is license/wallet-sized) instead of getting a RealID DL.
Hmm, I haven’t had a social security card since about 1990, when I lost it. And my driver’s licence and passport have sightly different names. (My state doesn’t allow middle names on the driver’s licence,Z only a middle initial. My passport has my full legal name.) I am soooo looking forward to real id.
Have fun. My wife has lost sight in one eye, and if she renews in person she has to take another road test (which she passes.) She’s decided to keep with a normal license and use her passport to fly.
I got a passport a few years ago when I was about to graduate from my third bout of college. I had a hope that I would get a job that required international travel. So far, this hasn’t happened. The passport is good until 2024 though. 
Yes. They’re good for 10 years, which is conveniently (or not) about the frequency with which I travel internationally.
Yes, I’ve had one since I was a child. As well as international travel (4x per year on average), I have often used it as proof of ID, as we don’t have a national ID card in the UK, and for a long time driving licences didn’t have a photo (they do now).
Anytime we have a new starter at work, they’re required to bring their passport as proof of eligibility to work. So it would be a bit awkward not to have one.
Do you mean some stores don’t like to accept passports or out of state ID? I do agree this is really annoying, especially when I’m clearly well over 21. I’ve mainly seen it near college campuses. When I lived in Columbus Ohio, I had to buy cigarettes for a 75 year old because she didn’t have an ID and one store was absolutely 100% card everyone. And, after a lifetime of heavy drinking and smoking, she looked every single one of those 75 years.
Right, as far as I can tell the usual situation is that a particular business may not want to accept an ID that does not also show local or in-US residence even if the state (or even corporate HQ!) does not go that far. When combined with the relatively frequent instance of employees not being aware that some place or another is a component of the Greater USA (for instance, Puerto Rico or even New Mexico, fer cryin’ out loud) or having had it driven into their heads that everything they do not immediately recognize must be assumed fake, it sometimes makes the news.
Then there’s how for some official situations such as obtaining the ID in the first place, or a voting registration or firearms transaction, you may be required to present proof of identity, of citizenship, AND of residence – passports allow you to pencil in an address but are not proof of place of domicile.
Of course I have a passport. It would be odd to be without one. I also secured passports for my kids when they were young, and they have used theirs.
I used to keep my passport in my safe deposit box at the bank, retrieving it whenever we had travel plans. One day my gf mentioned (jokingly) that I’d be shit outa luck if I had to leave the country unexpectedly on a Sunday. I retrieved my passport and have kept it at home ever since.
Looking at the law, it states that any government ID is acceptable. The sales clerk had to call a manager because the training didn’t cover government ID other than the PA driver’s license.
So, no cite. Just experience with incorrectly trained sale clerks and bartenders.
Don’t have one, never have had one, and don’t expect to ever need one. I have no relations that live outside the united states and I don’t travel to visit the ones that live here. If people want to visit me, they know where I live.
My US passport is valid till 2025 and my Canadian one till 2027.
If she renews in person she has to take a road test, but if she renews by mail she doesn’t? Why in the world does that happen?
Beats me. She’s not legally blind or anything, and she always passes.
Thanks. That makes sense.
You have 3.14159 valid passports? 
Mine expires first quarter 2023. I use it to fly domestically (my non Real ID DL is jammed in my wallet and hard to remove)
Brian
This extreme carding business seems to be a particularly American business. Shops here (UK) often had a sign/sticker by the tills which says “if you look under 25, we may ask for ID”. But no one is seriously going to card a 50 year old. I got carded when I was about 40 by some cashier-robot and I just laughed, and asked them to count my grey hairs instead (we don’t habitually have to carry ID, so the policy wouldn’t work here anyway). I was still served.
Some stores in the US will not allow the clerk to process the sale of alcohol without scanning the driver’s license or ID. It doesn’t matter the age or perceived age of the customer, the register won’t process the sale without ID.