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Comment by alkonaut | Hacker News Reader

Why is there no standardized e-ID in the US? How much money is wasted by different authorities and businesses having to reinvent the same wheel over and over? I have used the same auth for doing my taxes or checking my prescriptions or signing into my bank for 20 years.

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From my experience in the US, UK (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NO2ID ) and Canada there is a cultural aversion to government ID. I believe it's the same in Aus and NZ, so it may be an Anglophone thing.

It is partly cultural, and partly a power struggle between states and the federal government.

The current US administration is known for illegally deporting permanent residents and has stated intent to deport natural-born citizens. It should be self-evident why a centralized ID system under the control of the executive branch is a terrible idea.

That's horrible but why would it be worse together with an e-id system?

Because without thoroughly-enshrined protections for identities, an e-ID system provides an avenue for the government to effectively de-person undesirables at will, by removing their ability to use banks, sign contracts, access healthcare, etc.

US government is deporting undesirables at will right now without any of that. On the other side of the world, where id is mandatory and e-id is used for everything that makes sense, the city hall gives free heroin injections to addicts as a last resort therapy and provides for illegal/undocumented homeless people so they don't shit on the street.

Neither of those prevents somebody from stealing bicycles zo.

Isn't that what permit of residency and citizenship already is? Without legal residency or citizenship all those things become hard/impossible/illegal. It's not personhood, it's citizenship (or a permit of residency). It's the job of governments everywhere?

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