We all know that freedom fighters and sovereign citizens are well against a national ID. So what are the alternatives?
No ID pretty much only works in an anarchistic environment. The reason we have IDs is because they are a necessary component of so many things:
- tax
- government benefits
- licenses (driving and professional)
- passports
- proof of age (buy cigarettes or alcohol)
- law enforcement (who is meant to be in prison, who is a deadbeat dad)
While it is easy to have a “no ID” mantra, it is hard to make the above processes work without one.
Here’s a minor example, duck shooting license. The license exists to stop the duck population being decimated = no more hunting. Hunters understand the need for a license.
If the duck hunting zone was some theme park then you could buy a day ticket, no problem. But it is not an enclosed space, and therefore any mere ticket could be shared by many. So to stop that you need to be able to prove it is yours. No matter which way you wish to do that, it needs some variety of ID.
We don’t want people swapping passes to buy alcohol. We don’t want someone to get out of paying tax by saying that they are the other Joe Bloggs. Other lands won’t accept passports from a state with no IDs. You want no ID, then come up with another way. IDs were born from necessity.
National ID
This is something we can fix. A one-ID for all things might not be necessary.
Keep in mind that private business can make whatever rules or ways they wish, and if the vast majority of people don’t mind showing their driver’s license to rent a video, good luck finding a store without that requirement.
Maybe we can create ID silos?
- Legal – birth certificate, death certificate, courts, crimes, deadbeat dads, marriage, land ownership
- Society – driver’s license, recreational licenses, air travel
- Tax – employment, federal, state and local taxes, and tax benefits like housing, food stamps, pension
- Obligation – military draft, jury duty, voting
- Law – punishment and imprisonment, paying fines, deadbeat dads, bankruptcy
- Being a Customer – video store, gym, car hire, insurance, phone service
Each of these can use their own form of ID, and be mutually exclusive.
- Legal – birth certificate or citizen certificate
- Society – driver’s license or equivalent
- Tax – social security number
- Obligation – a new number just for this
- Law – birth certificate or citizen certificate
- Being a Customer – a new number just for this
Every number can be assigned at birth. Yes, you get your driver’s license at birth, and it becomes operational when you pass the test.
There has to be a way of verifying, and a backup plan, and so a central database that knows everything is inevitable. But it can be enshrined as only for verification (in extreme cases), courts and backup purposes. Never for cross-referencing for any reason.
So, a new born baby gets their birth certificate, their driver number, social security number, obligation number, and customer number. They provide DNA, retina scan and fingerprint to be stored alongside all of those in an uber-secure, offline, non-digital database, that can only be accessed from a public record court order.
