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Comment by reaperducer | Hacker News Reader

the US is a bit shy about national IDs for vague reasons that seem loosely associated with anti-authoritarian reasons and distrust of government.

It's called "history." And as they say, those who don't learn from it are doomed to repeat it.

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There's really no evidence that the USG doesn't already have everything it needs to oppress $GROUP if it wants to.

No federal IDs did absolutely nothing to inhibit Japanese internment. The federal government has vast powers already.

But aren't social security numbers effectively being used as national IDs right now? The fact that that they suck just makes fraud easier.

I don't see how modern society can function without some form of universal authentication. Alternately, if you live in a forest and don't need or want to participate in the financial system, I'm all for making a hypothetical national ID opt-in.

SSNs aren't really an ID they're an ID number, without looking at other databases and traces left there's only really a name associated with each and no biometric data so there's no real way to confirm that the person you're looking at is actually the person assigned XXX-XX-XXXX.

Which is what makes it such a huge problem- they're treated as ID's whether they're supposed to or not. Regardless of original intent, regardless of what you or the government or anyone else says, they are treated as ID's by the vast majority of business and organizations. That's the whole point of this discussion and why it's such a problem.

States give access to their driver's license databases to federal authorities. Any safety you perceive due to the lack of a national ID system is an illusion.

A lot of opposition to national IDs is based in religion.

Funny thing is, in Canada, SSN analog is called SIN.

Social Insurance Number, for the curious.

I was unaware that King George III was such a proponent of national ID cards.

Those who over-apply historical lessons in an incorrect context may serve as a future historical lesson in mistakes made, though.

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