4 ms·

Return the identity division to the states. No more SSN for everyday use. Every state will provide an ID, and most people already have one, and each identificat

Return the identity division to the states. No more SSN for everyday use. Every state will provide an ID, and most people already have one, and each identification has a serial number. That number is how you identify yourself to private companies. The only people who should be using your SSN is the federal government. Problems may arise: 1) What if you don't want an ID? Ok give them the number, skip the ID and photo, and go forth. 2) What about people who don't want to be know and forego identification? I'd say you have little choice, it's extremely hard to remain off of SOME database. 3) ID's cost money. Whose going to pay? That's a good federal grant question. Each state gets refunded for the trouble.

celestialjeu 9y ago
How does this work when you move states? Just the same kind of procedure as when you get your new Drivers License?
- Iv 9y ago
  Your ID is forever the one given by your state of birth or the state where you acquired nationality. States will be required to accept other states ID. I don't see how making it a state prerogative makes it easier tbh. The federal level seems appropriate for that.
jsmthrowaway 9y ago
The thrust of your comment already exists: it’s called a driver’s license or state ID for those who do not drive. The problem is identifying an American, not a resident of Massachusetts or Kansas. Comcast operates everywhere. State Farm operates everywhere. They want socials to identify you no matter where you live (for a number of reasons). How do you tie a Michigan license to a Nevada license to identify you? It’s intractable and already fails for the cases where it is used. You’d be asking businesses to get set up with every single state and territory for the purposes of identity management, and giving fraudulent folks fifty-four opportunities to defraud national businesses rather than N social security numbers. I can do the OMB analysis on your bill: 54x growth in consulting fees, billions in lost productivity forcing every system to switch to a new fifty-four jurisdiction unique identifier, etc. etc. Ideal would be a number that fits in the same space as an SSN but can be rotated. This limits significant changes to national company systems, but means you only have a billion not-so-secure numbers to play with, so you’d have to strongly disincentivize rotations to about 2 or 3 per lifetime modulo American death rate. If we are going to disrupt extensively, let’s focus on one American system rather than fifty-four systems for no net benefit; if state-level identification was useful for this purpose, we would already be using the ones we have. We don’t.
- klipt 9y ago
  Passport number? A US passport card doesn't cost much, and non-citizen residents generally already have a foreign passport.
  - freehunter 9y ago
    >A US passport card doesn't cost much That's the problem. It doesn't cost much, but a Social Security number costs nothing and takes nothing to get. Something is infinitely more than nothing. Passports also require a lot of paperwork and identification to get that people may not have.
    - jsmthrowaway 9y ago
      And passports are cancelled and taken after a felony conviction. Not many know this.
peterjlee 9y ago
The reason SSN became a form of ID in the first place was because it's the only way to track a person across all states. If I get a loan in California, then move to Arizona and apply for another loan from another bank, the new bank should still be able to know about my loan in California. SSN was just too convenient for that purpose and banks stuck with it even though it wasn't designed for it.

celestialjeu 9y ago

How does this work when you move states? Just the same kind of procedure as when you get your new Drivers License?

Iv 9y ago
Your ID is forever the one given by your state of birth or the state where you acquired nationality. States will be required to accept other states ID. I don't see how making it a state prerogative makes it easier tbh. The federal level seems appropriate for that.

jsmthrowaway 9y ago

The thrust of your comment already exists: it’s called a driver’s license or state ID for those who do not drive. The problem is identifying an American, not a resident of Massachusetts or Kansas. Comcast operates everywhere. State Farm operates everywhere. They want socials to identify you no matter where you live (for a number of reasons). How do you tie a Michigan license to a Nevada license to identify you? It’s intractable and already fails for the cases where it is used. You’d be asking businesses to get set up with every single state and territory for the purposes of identity management, and giving fraudulent folks fifty-four opportunities to defraud national businesses rather than N social security numbers. I can do the OMB analysis on your bill: 54x growth in consulting fees, billions in lost productivity forcing every system to switch to a new fifty-four jurisdiction unique identifier, etc. etc. Ideal would be a number that fits in the same space as an SSN but can be rotated. This limits significant changes to national company systems, but means you only have a billion not-so-secure numbers to play with, so you’d have to strongly disincentivize rotations to about 2 or 3 per lifetime modulo American death rate. If we are going to disrupt extensively, let’s focus on one American system rather than fifty-four systems for no net benefit; if state-level identification was useful for this purpose, we would already be using the ones we have. We don’t.

klipt 9y ago
Passport number? A US passport card doesn't cost much, and non-citizen residents generally already have a foreign passport.
- freehunter 9y ago
  >A US passport card doesn't cost much That's the problem. It doesn't cost much, but a Social Security number costs nothing and takes nothing to get. Something is infinitely more than nothing. Passports also require a lot of paperwork and identification to get that people may not have.
  - jsmthrowaway 9y ago
    And passports are cancelled and taken after a felony conviction. Not many know this.

peterjlee 9y ago

The reason SSN became a form of ID in the first place was because it's the only way to track a person across all states. If I get a loan in California, then move to Arizona and apply for another loan from another bank, the new bank should still be able to know about my loan in California. SSN was just too convenient for that purpose and banks stuck with it even though it wasn't designed for it.