3 ms·

My ask is much smaller. Any document that the law requires you to carry has to be free of cost to the person and it must be convenient to get (or get again if l

by mcny 5y ago

My ask is much smaller. Any document that the law requires you to carry has to be free of cost to the person and it must be convenient to get (or get again if lost or stolen). That means both the first issue and subsequent issues need to always be free of cost. If I need to visit some office to get it, such office must be at least as ubiquitous as a United States Postal Service office, and ideally more open hours, not less. I don't think there is either the will or the budget to do this. This will be a very expensive continuous undertaking, not a one time expensive. My personal opinion is this money should go toward medicare for all. I strongly dislike means testing (medicaid?) or age testing (medicare). I'm sure people can find better use for the money it will take to fund a national ID.

Joker_vD 5y ago
> a very expensive continuous undertaking "Very expensive"? Sure, if you allow private subcontractors to charge $2500 for printing and laminating a 60x92 mm piece of plastic, it will be very expensive, no doubt about that. But it does not have to be that way, as the experience of many other countries with mandatory government-issued IDs shows.
mindslight 5y ago
If I'm reading you right, that's kind of a weird argument. Paraphrasing - removing fees for mandatory government services would cost too much for this one thing, and here is a better specific use for the money instead. Rather there is a whole spectrum of better and worse uses for public money, and we generally debate each on its own merits. But either way it doesn't really address the core of what I said, in that the system currently mandated by the government has strongly benefited the surveillance industry. For example SSNs were never supposed to be used for anything besides Social Security, but a law prohibiting such abuse was never passed.

by mcny 5y ago

Joker_vD 5y ago

> a very expensive continuous undertaking "Very expensive"? Sure, if you allow private subcontractors to charge $2500 for printing and laminating a 60x92 mm piece of plastic, it will be very expensive, no doubt about that. But it does not have to be that way, as the experience of many other countries with mandatory government-issued IDs shows.

mindslight 5y ago

If I'm reading you right, that's kind of a weird argument. Paraphrasing - removing fees for mandatory government services would cost too much for this one thing, and here is a better specific use for the money instead. Rather there is a whole spectrum of better and worse uses for public money, and we generally debate each on its own merits. But either way it doesn't really address the core of what I said, in that the system currently mandated by the government has strongly benefited the surveillance industry. For example SSNs were never supposed to be used for anything besides Social Security, but a law prohibiting such abuse was never passed.