5 ms·

At least as a citizen in Germany, you're not required to carry ID. You are required to own some ID (ID card or passport), and you're required to register the pl

At least as a citizen in Germany, you're not required to carry ID. You are required to own some ID (ID card or passport), and you're required to register the place you live in with the authorities. Not sure what the rules for non-citizens are. In any case, most people I know always carry their ID card with them in their wallet. You don't need it all that often, but you might as well carry it around, and having government issued proof of your identity is actually quite handy in many situations (situations that are handled with SSID and/or credit card in the US).

lmm 9y ago
> You are required to own some ID (ID card or passport), and you're required to register the place you live in with the authorities. Fair enough, but still, that's not a requirement here, and seems weird and oppressive (indeed my memory is that being required to register where you lived was a classic example of the non-free-ness of the Soviet Union). > In any case, most people I know always carry their ID card with them in their wallet. You don't need it all that often, but you might as well carry it around, and having government issued proof of your identity is actually quite handy in many situations (situations that are handled with SSID and/or credit card in the US). Sure, in practice I carry my driving license around most of the time in the UK. But the fact that I don't have to feels important.
- supergarfield 9y ago
  As I understand it, the vast majority of people in the UK must tell the tax service when their address changes: https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/change-of-circumstance https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/change-of-circumstance
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  Declaring a single legal domicile is a great way to prevent problems with location-based voting and taxation. Hypothetically, if you owned two houses, and spent exactly 182.5 days per year in each, an outside observer would not be able to tell which one you considered to be your true home. So that observer might presume it is not your home, and prevent you from voting there, or presume that it is, and levy location-based taxes as though it were your full-time residence. Worse, different observers could make those determinations separately, and you might end up paying double taxes while being denied the ability to vote in either place. There are also concerns about the correct address the government should use to send its official communications to you. It isn't always about knowing exactly where to send the cops in ninja gear to rouse you out of bed at 2 AM.

lmm 9y ago

> You are required to own some ID (ID card or passport), and you're required to register the place you live in with the authorities. Fair enough, but still, that's not a requirement here, and seems weird and oppressive (indeed my memory is that being required to register where you lived was a classic example of the non-free-ness of the Soviet Union). > In any case, most people I know always carry their ID card with them in their wallet. You don't need it all that often, but you might as well carry it around, and having government issued proof of your identity is actually quite handy in many situations (situations that are handled with SSID and/or credit card in the US). Sure, in practice I carry my driving license around most of the time in the UK. But the fact that I don't have to feels important.

supergarfield 9y ago
As I understand it, the vast majority of people in the UK must tell the tax service when their address changes: https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/change-of-circumstance https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/change-of-circumstance
logfromblammo 9y ago
Declaring a single legal domicile is a great way to prevent problems with location-based voting and taxation. Hypothetically, if you owned two houses, and spent exactly 182.5 days per year in each, an outside observer would not be able to tell which one you considered to be your true home. So that observer might presume it is not your home, and prevent you from voting there, or presume that it is, and levy location-based taxes as though it were your full-time residence. Worse, different observers could make those determinations separately, and you might end up paying double taxes while being denied the ability to vote in either place. There are also concerns about the correct address the government should use to send its official communications to you. It isn't always about knowing exactly where to send the cops in ninja gear to rouse you out of bed at 2 AM.