[clue-talk] national ID card

[dennisjperkins at comcast.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Angelo Bertolli <angelo at freeshell.org>
> dennisjperkins at comcast.net wrote:
> > What benefits does it offer the individual that we do not have no?
> >   
> That is the main question.  I hope by "individual" you also mean 
> indirect benefits.  A society that works well and efficiently is 
> beneficial to the individual.  I think there needs to be a balance.
> 
> But no... I can't think of anything in particular that a national ID 
> would do for us that we need.  I think the Internet does a better job at 
> keeping things open and letting people identify themselves.
>

"A society that works well and efficiently."  By some yardsticks, Nazi Germany worked well and efficiently.  Unless you were a member of that growing list of undesirables.  Jews, communists, gypsies, social democrats, gays, Slavs, ...

That said, I think societies work best if government interferes as little as possible.  But I view government as a necessary evil, to be watched carefully.