The question of national identity schemes has been raised a number of times. This debate has been going on for sometime in the UK over the Labour governments single minded attempts to impose a compulsory National ID card along with a massive state dossier on every citizen from cradle to grave. Many people think its all about having to carry another little plastic card, no big deal you may think, but this misses the point. There is a massive difference between being asked to prove your identify, for example to get a loan, and the government owning your identify. What we are talking about is a fundamental change in the relationship between citizen and government. A relationship however the US citizen is much better placed to defend than the British, by virtue of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. However once built the register would be open to feature creep,
I have taken some of the arguments from a British campaign site http://www.no2id.net/ (http://www.no2id.net/IDSchemes/whyNot.php) and trying to make them a little more relevant to a mostly American audience.
Second Amendment - Right to keep and bear arms.
The introduction of federal identity register would enable a cohesive gun control system, since everyone has an ID card, why not require it to be produced and verified for any transaction involving firearms, possibly even require the items purchased to be logged against it. This would give government a clear picture who was buying what, and for them to prevent guns being bought by those deemed unsuitable.
Fourth Amendment - Protection from unreasonable search and seizure
"Papers please." ID cards in practice would provide a pretext for those in authority—public or private—to question individuals who stand out for reasons of personal appearance or demeanour.
Fifth Amendment - Due process Sixth & Seventh Amendment - Trial by jury and rights of the accused Eighth Amendment - Cruel and unusual punishment.
Without reference to the courts or any appeals process, the government may cancel or require surrender of an identity card, without a right of appeal, at any time. Given that the object of the scheme is that an ID card will be eventually required to exercise any ordinary civil function, this amounts to granting the government the power of civic life and death.
Tenth Amendment - Powers of states and people.
Once present a national identify scheme will creep its way into almost every aspect of life, since your identity will be owned at a federal level what guarantee is there that your state rights won't be affected.
Of course the big question is, what good would a national ID register do?
Terrorism
ID does not establish intention. Competent criminals and terrorists will be able to subvert the identity system. Random outrages by individuals can't be stopped. Ministers agree that ID cards will not prevent atrocities. A blank assertion that the department would find it helpful is not an argument that would be entertained for fundamental change in any other sphere of government but national security. Where is the evidence? Research suggests there is no link between the use of identity cards and the prevalence of terrorism, and in no instance has the presence of an identity card system been shown a significant deterrent to terrorist activity. Experts attest that ID unjustifiably presumed secure actually diminishes security. The perpetrators of the 9/11, Madrid and 7/7 atrocities went out of their way to carry their own legitimate ID so they could take the 'credit'.
Illegal immigration and working People will still enter the country using foreign documents—genuine or forged—and ID cards offer no more deterrent to people smugglers than passports and visas. Employers already face substantial penalties for failing to obtain proof of entitlement to work, yet there are only a handful of prosecutions a year compaired to the number of illegal workers.
Identity fraud Both Australia and the USA have far worse problems of identity theft than Britain, precisely because of general reliance on a single reference source. Costs usually cited for of identity-related crime here include much fraud not susceptible to an ID system. Nominally "secure", trusted, ID is more useful to the fraudster. The government has not explained how it will stop registration by identity thieves in the personae of innocent others. Coherent collection of all sensitive personal data by government, and its easy transmission between departments, will create vast new opportunities for data-theft.
OK, so maybe its not the great panacea its propped up to be, but it must have some merit, so what about the cost?
Opportunity costs The Government has not even tried to show that national ID management will be more cost-effective than less spectacular alternative, targeted, solutions to the same problems (whether tried and tested or novel). We are to trust to luck that it is.
Taxpayer pain Even at current the UK Home Office estimates, the additional tax burden of setting up the scheme will be of the order of £200 ($400) per person. The direct cost to individuals (of a combined passport and ID card package) is quoted as £93. The impact on other departmental and local authority budgets is unknown. The scope and impact of arbitrary penalties would make speed cameras trivial by comparison.
So with all these potential pitfalls and problems, and not a lot to show for it, I have to ask myself why bother? The UK Labour government exposed their reasoning when they were calling it an 'Entitlement Card'. They are socialists, so they truly believe they can create a better society with better people if they take control away from the individual and run things from the center, a view I don't hold to. Socialism requires taking a large proportion of the individual's wealth redistributing it as tied services, such as state benefits and health care. Compulsory National ID cards, and vast state databases are the tools of socialism. The bigger the share the state takes, the more important it is than it can keep track of it. While you could become very paranoid over the abuse of the vast power an national ID register grants government, I am much more concerned over incompetence. With hundreds of thousands of lowly paid civil 'servants' lording it over my very existence, I see massive potential for screw up and at the very least, massive inconvenience to myself and others, at worse personal ruin. The UK government is currently engaged in a series of massive data loss screw-ups, including the loss of details including the names, DOB, addresses, NI Number and bank a/c numbers of every parent and child in the country! Ask the average guy in the street about ID cards, and they will probably tell you they don't see a problem. I suspect that will change when they are ordered to a to travel miles to government registration office to have to be fingerprinted, photographed and interrogated about their life and asked to cough up £100 for the pleasure, and that will only be the beginning.
|