Today's Non-Button Poli-Poll: National IDsFollow

Assume that a national ID card would be a requirement to access federal programs such as Medicaid, housing programs & WIC and that it would be a requirement to be enrolled in federal payroll systems such as income tax and Social Security deductions thus making it a requirement for employment.

Question #1: Would you support a national ID that contains basic, drivers license style information about you? Name, birth date, address, etc.

Question #2: Would you support a national ID that contains biometric data about you for counterfeiting security purposes? Thumbprint, retinal information, DNA, etc.

Edited, Apr 30th 2010 12:38pm by Jophiel

You need premium again, Joph :-(

I'd be fine with the first. I can see the appeal of the second, but I can also see a "slippery slope" argument against it. Personally I'd be fine with both, but I don't know if we should have them or if they would pass muster legally.

Also, what do you do about legal aliens or exchange students? Do they get this card as well?

Samira's wonderful poll needs a "I don't support either" option for those who would like to answer "No" to both questions.

Because Arizona would muster up the National Guard and take over the rest of the country, forcing us to kick out all the legal immigrants because they might actually be illegal.

Don't be stupid.

I see no harm in the concept of a national ID card or a national standard for state ID cards that could be issued in lieu of a national card. I would prefer a national standard though, as in practice a national ID card would do little more than create another mass of federal bureaucracy, likely associated with the Social Security Administration, increasing their already sizable workforce.

I would initially support an all-in-one citizens card, but would like to know if and how other socialist states (UK, Australia, Canadia, etc) handle such items.

Likely not much. My question would be is there something similar implemented in a country with as much local autonomy as the states here are supposed to have.

I support it. I also hope that the goverment grows some balls and starts imforcing the Illegal alien laws.

National IDs, strengthening federal government, obviously socialism, etc.

I don't understand the conservative thought process I guess, maybe gbaji or someone could draw the world's most disjointed line to connect the two.

Personally I chose the first option, as I already have a driver's license. I would oppose fingerprints/DNA/etc being mandated to be on file; that's too much of a breach of personal liberty. I'm innocent until proven guilty, no?

I'm all for option one, but option two seems to go a bit far, in my opinion.

This may be a stupid question, but if you had that much info on an ID card and it got misplaced, how easy would it be for someone to pick it up and take out a huge loan in your name? It sounds like that would be really simple to me, but I don't know what kinds of checks and balances would be put in place to keep this from happening.

If we went with option 2 it would be difficult, as the thief wouldn't have your retinal print or likely your fingerprint.

See, I thought about that, but are banks going to be equipped with retinal scanners?

They would be if everyone had that information available for access. I don't know how much your average retinal scanner runs for these days* (although thumbprint scanners are relatively cheap) but it wouldn't take too many unrecovered loans made with false information to exceed the cost.

The catalyst for this thread was a drive time radio show the other day in which the (typically conservative) host expressed dismay that so many people would willingly trade up this information and go this route. He kept hearing from people who a month ago were screaming about the intrusive US Census asking if you're a white guy or a black guy and who now would be first in line to hand over this information to the US government if it meant getting rid of the illegal immigrants. He cornered one caller who was advocating thumbprints and asked if he'd be in favor of a DNA database and the caller enthusiastically agreed. The host was baffled, saying it was as though these people all forgot any of their reservations about the federal government and any arguments such as "It could be used against us when the revolution comes" in their fervor to get rid of a particular group of people.

I'm not saying anything about anyone here (yet... heh) but the recent spat about "liberty" being more of a talking point than an actual ideal for most people kind of tied into the whole thing and got me curious.

A Google for "retina scanner" showed anything from 9k-200k and I wasn't about to go looking to find the differences