I'm curious...

[conuly]

Because I never understood this.

What's the big deal about national id card = evil? Why do people think that? How is it different from combining a state ID and a social security card? Don't many countries in Europe have a national ID (I don't know, actually...)?

Comments

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

Well.......

The next step after a National ID is to combine everything with your ID. Your frequent-shopper card at Safeway. Your Blockbuster card. Your health insurance card.

So, then you get things like: "Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Bryant. I can't sell you a pizza because your health insurance has a flag here about cholesterol. Would you like the small side salad instead?"

Or, better still, getting pulled over for a routine traffic violation and, when they run your ID, getting put into cuffs while they search for methamphetamines because you happened to buy both brake fluid and Sudafed last week. Or because I bought a copy of "Soldier of Fortune" magazine.

How about having your college or university decide that the four weeks you went to visit your folks in another state mean you've lost residency and now must pay $15,000 in out-of-state tuition increases? They know about these four weeks, of course, because your national ID is used to board an airplane as well as to register for your classes (ostensibly because they want to make sure no for'ners with expired student visas can sign up for school).

This all, of course, ignores the fact that the IDs will almost certainly have an RFID in them, so their movement can even be tracked (and therefore, yours).

It's basically another way to monitor your activity, this time at a national level. Even people who prefer larger government get uneasy at the level of surveillance that's already available to ours.

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Entirely.

I don't want to be in the government's databases. I am already, but that doesn't mean I have to give them more information, more of a hold on me.

[thren0dy.livejournal.com]

I agree. I'm all about privacy, so it's a good thing I live in Montana which has really strict privacy laws, and that's the way we like it. Giving the gub'mint more info on the pretense of being able to track possible wrongdoers (or whatever the reasoning behind this is) punishes the non-wrongdoers. I may sound like I'm a crazy conspiracy theorist for thinking this way, but hey. :)

[latenightparty.livejournal.com]

Dude, I wanna move to Montana.

I feel really uneasy about the tracking-people's-activities thing. I'm not involved in any criminal activity, but still, the thought of being spied on by the government... ugh.

[conuly]

That's really a slippery slope argument. It sounds to me like it's just a consolidation of state ID systems. Now, I'd love it if this huge-ass nation were no less than 4 smaller nations (and alaska and hawaii), because I think the system we have now is inefficient, but that's a different issue.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

Hey, you asked why people are against the idea. I explained why I'm against them. You don't have to agree with me, you know, or think that my argument is even valid. I'm just letting you know the argument that sold me.

[conuly]

I know! Don't worry, I'm not saying "my god! That's stupid!" I'm just saying "huh. Well, I don't agree with this argument because I think the population of the US is not quite that stupid as to let things get that bad". Which is really a debatable idea in and of itself :)

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

LOL! Absolutely!