In this Information Age, it would be a simple thing for the government to issue everyone in America – at federal expense – a national ID card, keyed to your SSN, and corresponding to a database in DC that would include a file on you with all your recorded interactions with public authorities – your birth certificate, (public) school records, driving license/record, arrest records if any, citizenship/residency status, tax returns, etc. – all saved in pdf, and which any (authorized) public official could call up by swiping your card.
Effects:
It would make LEOs’ job easier. (Not that they can’t pull up most of that info from their onboard computers now.)
It would make ICE’s job easier. (Nativist Robert Tanton has long been pushing for a national ID card for just that reason.)
It would make anti-terrorism efforts easier, both WRT foreign and domestic terrorists (but mainly foreign).
It would make voting registration unnecessary/automatic – your national ID card would be your voting registration (subject to applicable state law, e.g., felony disenfranchisement). That would render moot the whole “voter ID” issue. Of course, that part would require you to update your address with relevant authorities every time you move – but, you’re expected to do that with your driver’s license already.
It would make the census easier, if not unnecessary.
“I hope you know that this will go down in your permanent record.” It will!
Of course, just because you have such a card does not mean you’re legally required to have it on you at all times or present it when a LEO demands it – that would require separate legislation, state or federal.
Religious extremists believe a national ID card is the mark of the beast from the Book of Revelation. They would freak out about it, the republican party would pander to them, and the democratic party would drop the issue.
That’s why I specified “authorized.” Presumably any official who got his hands on your card would be allowed to search only a legally specified range of your records.
But, why are tax returns private anyway? I think any newspaper reporter should be able to access them. One complaint against FDR, I think, was, “He wants us all to have glass pockets!” Well, why not? Who owns what is a matter of legitimate public interest.
There is nothing about my money that is a matter of legitimate public interest. I am not a public figure and have literally no power or influence over any policy anywhere. The only reasons I can even imagine to care how much money I have are all illegitimate.
And back on the subject of the cards, given that you’re saying I don’t have to have it on me, what possible use does this thing have? I’m already in countless government systems. If they can’t get their act together enough to correlate their data, that has nothing to do with cards.
Do you propose any measures in case of theft or misplacement?
More importantly, do you think the federal government has the constitutional authority to put such a program in place? If any individual state does not want to participate in such a program, what happens to your plan?
In this hypercloud digital world, there’s nothing that can’t be done with a simple eye/fingerprint record, and a central government database. We’re already there in many instances - plastic and PDFs are ridiculously insecure. Which is why even paying for things on plastic is going out the window.
Really? I work in a big box store. Only a small minority of our transactions are wireless. Around 1/3 still involve cash in part or whole, most of the rest use plastic (we still get a few paper checks).
I think the “first adopters” and high tech cutting edge folks tend to over-estimate their numbers.
Is this one of those weird American things again? Because in Germany having personal ID on hand is perfectly normal and accepted. There’s a national ID, and pretty much everyone gets one. The fact that, in the US, there are a great many things you need ID for (including, as of late in many places in the US, voting) makes the existence of a national ID program pretty reasonable.
Not that the reasons listed above are necessarily good reasons, but the idea that a country can demand photo ID for such a fundamental right as voting and then proceed to not provide one is just beyond asinine.
I’m in Europe. There’s some stores here which don’t even accept cash anymore. Checks are obsolete - major stores don’t accept them. Retailers in my town universally use wireless / contactless transactions.
We don’t have ID cards in the UK, and there’s little we ever need to show ID for - maybe trying to buy alcohol if you’re under 21. Even if we get stopped by traffic police, we have seven days in which to present ID at a police station. We don’t show ID to vote (just recite your address). I never carry photo ID.
