USA-Drivers' ID-Rebellion

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I am going to against the grain here but this is something that has baffled me about the US for a long time. The lack of any proper register of its citizens and a unified ID card system.

I remember I read about a story in a paper a few years back about a young drug addicted woman who had been taken into custody by the police. When they returned to the apartment several days later they found a young child hiding half starved in the closet. No one had really known the woman had a child, apparently there was no easy way to check and seeing as the woman was too doped out to be coherent and probably extremely vary of the authorities no one knew there was a child in the apartment. With a unified register things like this wouldnt happen not that I think they happen all that much but to me it seems pretty basic that a society knows who their citizens are and where they live.

When you are born here you are assigned a number, the date of your birth and four additional digits with some other information and it is basically by this number all authorities recognice you. What is so bad about that? To me it seems practical and logical and 1984 aside I at least have enough fait in my government that they wont abuse it too much nor have any real interest in doing so. If they want to control us there are other ways.

As for using the cards to see where you are it seems a bit over the top but keep in mind that if you use a cellphone "they" can already do that.

 

Joa is right

 

It might work if I had any faith in my government...But the USGOV lost me about 8 years ago...

 

And in the U.S., you get a SS#, a unique 9-digit number by which you are tracked. I don't see how it's all that much different than what you said.

I live in Maryland, one of the states that intends to comply with the standard. As a result, all new driver's licenses being issued are in compliance with this new regulation. It's still legal to drive with an old license, but when your license expires, the new one issued to you is updated. I got a new driver's license in the last year. However, there was no requirement of a retina scan, fingerprints or a DNA sample. So I think some of what the article mentions is overstated. In fact, if you required everyone to get a retina scan, get fingerprinted, and submit a DNA sample, it would be decades before all of this was included in a national database.

That having been said, there are some changes to the new Driver's License, but they are far less obvious: (1) They changed the Maryland hologram that covers the card that you can see when the light catches it at the right angle. (2) There is a red heart on the front indicating that I am an organ donor - it used to be a sticker on the back. (3) There is a scan code on the back of the card that I imagine can be read like a credit card by swiping the card through a reader. (4) There is the large main picture of me on the left hand side of the dirvers license, and a much smaller identical picture on the bottom right-hand corner. Evidently, this is osme digital marking on each picture that ensures they are identical, but I'm sure it could be faked.

 

What is it with the US and this kind of thing? I'd feel much, much safer in my country if every single person had ways of being easily identified. Who do individuals think they are if they think the government is 'out to get them'? Talk about delusions of grandeur. I'm all for more forms of ID (especially with the high amount of identity fraud etc. around these days) and more cameras, surveillance etc. etc. I don't do anything wrong so I have nothing to worry about. Only people who have something to hide should be worried about this, IMO.

 

Americans have historically been extremely individualistic and are habitually suspicious of the government and its motives. As a law-abiding citizen, the government has no business knowing my whereabouts and business. As time passes, the Federal Government encroaches more and more on the private citizen. The income tax is a good example of government encroachment. So is gun control. Americans despise regimentation and authoritarian schemes like this one. The States are right in challenging this. I'm sure the Feds will bully the States into complying like they always do. So much for States Rights and individual liberty.

 

While I am not nearly as up in arms about this as a lot of other people are in the US, I really cannot agree with the sentiment. In fact, identity theft is one of the prime arguements AGAINST these IDs. The article specifically points out that if you should lose your ID, someone who wanted to steal your identity would have everything they needed to do so. While I can say that I don't think it's hard to hold onto your driver's license (I've never lost mine), people are stupid, and some people will lose them.