4 ms·

Not meaning to hurt any feelings here, but are you aware that people in Sweden have been filing taxes, accessing medical records etc. online for years with the

Not meaning to hurt any feelings here, but are you aware that people in Sweden have been filing taxes, accessing medical records etc. online for years with the help of nation-wide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BankID https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BankID ? As for REAL ID, it just seems like a requirement for the plastic ID, which seems to be weaker than the old EU requirements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identity_cards_in_the_European_Economic_Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identity_cards_in_the...

quadrifoliate 4y ago
Not meaning to hurt any feelings here, but have you ever tried explaining to someone in rural Texas that you really think that a Government issued ID with which your taxes and medical records can be easily tracked is a good idea? Federalism in the US, a large section of the population that has no intent to travel outside the country, and general suspicion of the Government in a lot of states means that there is a patchwork of different IDs with different requirements, all of which are perfectly valid for their own jurisdiction. Real ID is just a way to set a basic standard for this kind of ID that will be required for (mostly interstate) air travel. A better analogy for you might be a European ID. Get back to me when you can file taxes and access medical records anywhere in Europe using the same ID. (I half expect someone to pipe up saying that this is indeed possible and make me eat my words.)
- noahtallen 4y ago
  Unfortunately for the Texan, this information is already being tracked. I imagine it’s easy for the government to do so. It’s just harder for the Texan, and for every single other person in the country, to interact with the government. National ID would even save government resources! Imagine all the duplicated state processes and spending that could be eliminated! Imagine the various political arguments about voter ID that wouldn’t even matter if every single person was assigned an ID for free at birth.

quadrifoliate 4y ago

Not meaning to hurt any feelings here, but have you ever tried explaining to someone in rural Texas that you really think that a Government issued ID with which your taxes and medical records can be easily tracked is a good idea? Federalism in the US, a large section of the population that has no intent to travel outside the country, and general suspicion of the Government in a lot of states means that there is a patchwork of different IDs with different requirements, all of which are perfectly valid for their own jurisdiction. Real ID is just a way to set a basic standard for this kind of ID that will be required for (mostly interstate) air travel. A better analogy for you might be a European ID. Get back to me when you can file taxes and access medical records anywhere in Europe using the same ID. (I half expect someone to pipe up saying that this is indeed possible and make me eat my words.)

noahtallen 4y ago
Unfortunately for the Texan, this information is already being tracked. I imagine it’s easy for the government to do so. It’s just harder for the Texan, and for every single other person in the country, to interact with the government. National ID would even save government resources! Imagine all the duplicated state processes and spending that could be eliminated! Imagine the various political arguments about voter ID that wouldn’t even matter if every single person was assigned an ID for free at birth.