|
You are correct, they used the census. However, I fail to see how that is fundamentally different from a national ID. The point of this photograph is that 'yes, the government (in California) is storing photos of its citizens.' You have no doubt heard about all the attendee's of this last Superbowl getting a facial scan by computer - and they caught (a few) people with warrants using this system. Currently, NCIC has 40 million sets of fingerprints on file, with their goal being a search time of under 9 seconds. So what I am trying to say is: if the current government goal had a slogan, it could be a paraphrase of the Microsoft slogan: How do you want to be indentified today?
The problem with this, is that the government cannot be trusted in all cases. And control of national ID system would provide so much power that its abuse is assured. "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." What would you do, when presented with the option: pay the bribe, or be marked as an employment 'loser'? Today, kids in school are being hooked into the federal job training programs - complete with aptitude tests. So the problem with a national ID is that you have zero recourse. Identity theft can at least be fought and repaired.
|