Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsay Graham are hard at work with a new plan for a universal biometric government ID card. Oh joy. I read the details they have so far and it brings up a lot of questions. They are talking about reading either finger prints or the veins in the back of your hand and requiring the card to get a job. The estimated price for the equipment is $800. The article I read left a lot more questions than answers. The first thing I note is the $800 price as they said small businesses that don’t have the machine could take a new employee to a post office or somewhere and process them. That’s convenient. Good thing your time doesn’t cost a dime.
The first question I had was why $800? What company is selling their technology to these senators and assuring their lifetime wealth? No doubt they have some strategic patent and government lock in. It is worth noting the biometric readers on laptops cost much less because all you need is a super cheap cell phone camera chip, some glass, plastic and software. Of course there are a lot more questions that arise but central to this are the arguments that the social security card is out dated and we can’t seem to verify citizenship.
First of all how do you obtain this card? I recently had to get a new social security card to get a drivers license. I didn’t even need that for a passport! You need birth certificate and things of this nature to prove your identity. Won’t you need exactly the same thing for this new ID card? Also, what if you lose the card? What kind of validation of payment with the card will the government require from companies? I hate to give these statists ideas but if they microchip the population like we do our pets and will soon do our groceries they could track us everywhere. The point is that this card would be tied to payroll from every company. If you are self employed do you need one to pay yourself?
Most people don’t remember when social security started as it was in the first half of the last century. That means that everyone today paying into social security should have their money there, right? Actually the social security lock box is full of IOUs from the government. If this happened in a business it would be jail time for raiding the pension plan. Originally and by law you are only required to give your social security number to the government for benefits or an employer for taxes. However it became a national ID number used by banks. So while you are not required to give your ID to get a loan you simply won’t get one if you don’t. Even weirder if you are Amish you don’t have to pay social security taxes because they are conscientious objectors. Given that it is in the red, is being operated like a Ponzi scheme and congress has repeatedly robbed it and left worthless IOUs I think it’s clear that only a fool would trust the government with their money any more than Bernie Madoff.
We have been assured this national ID card will not be misused like our social security number. That assurance is only as credible as the unicorn next to you. They plan on storing information on the card. Anyone who is paying attention to the bailouts knows the government is in bed with the big banks. How long until this card is networked in the financial world? How long until you need one of these cards to open a bank account? How long until this card replaces bank cards and the reader is being used for secure online purchases. How long until all currency is moved through your biometric ID card?
Granted that may seem a stretch, but the savings to the government would be huge. I doubt it would be easy to fully convert but the real motivation to fear is the government intrusion. You see if you have to carry this card with you for any reason it is quite easy to include an RFID tag that can be read if you are within 25 feet. That means anyone who has your ID number can now physically track you. Your employer could use this instead of a time clock and talk to you about your bathroom time. A store could target the rotation of marketing displays to audience. Intelligence agencies could track you even more accurately than with cameras. Your government and employer might even be able to review every purchase you make.
Granted you could say this is awfully paranoid, and you’d be right. However as the saying goes, just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me. In the 1990s I met someone who was here on an expired visa from South Africa. This person was causing me grief and it downed on my I could turn him in and have him deported. I called INS and to my surprise they couldn’t be bothered. I could go on and on about borders, jobs and people I know relevant to immigration issues but the bottom line is this. If there is a failure in the government why should every citizen give up their privacy to fix it?
We’re told this card will not be able to be cheated or forged. Whatever. One of the most astonishing news items I read recently was about the theft of thousands of computers and other gear from homeland security. Yeah, think about that. First you have to prove who you are… with paper documents. Then you have to be fingerprinted like a common criminal. Then you have, let me see, something like a voting machine to assure legitimacy. Oops! We know how many scandals have hit there. Finally, after we discount the creative abilities of black hats and the rampant theft of national security equipment we come down to the real consideration…
Border security is not a top priority. Enforcing laws is not a top priority. The fallback position instead is to compromise the privacy of every citizen and add expensive infrastructure and additional hurdles to employers. Why is it that we don’t allow web sites to aggregate specific personal data, only general aggregates without personal connections? Privacy. Why is it that we don’t allow companies to dip into pensions when they are short on cash? Propriety. Why are we so willing to trust a government that has shown that it will exclude it’s own actions from the the same regulation that we would place on any other entity. Of the people… for the people… by the people… or is it of the people, for the elites, by the aristocrats?
When I look at what is happening today I see a disconnect from the quintessential distrust our founders had for powerful central government. I see power corrupting and a central government that wants to control more and more of our lives. I would consider that to enact the most oppressive control government would need the most advanced means of monitoring and gathering data. I really don’t care how rational this proposition sounds. I have two words for you… Unintended consequences. If this were a credit card I could choose to consent. As a government plan who imagines it would be rolled back?
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 12:38 AM and is filed under social commentary.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Your Shiny New Gov’t ID
Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsay Graham are hard at work with a new plan for a universal biometric government ID card. Oh joy. I read the details they have so far and it brings up a lot of questions. They are talking about reading either finger prints or the veins in the back of your hand and requiring the card to get a job. The estimated price for the equipment is $800. The article I read left a lot more questions than answers. The first thing I note is the $800 price as they said small businesses that don’t have the machine could take a new employee to a post office or somewhere and process them. That’s convenient. Good thing your time doesn’t cost a dime.
The first question I had was why $800? What company is selling their technology to these senators and assuring their lifetime wealth? No doubt they have some strategic patent and government lock in. It is worth noting the biometric readers on laptops cost much less because all you need is a super cheap cell phone camera chip, some glass, plastic and software. Of course there are a lot more questions that arise but central to this are the arguments that the social security card is out dated and we can’t seem to verify citizenship.
First of all how do you obtain this card? I recently had to get a new social security card to get a drivers license. I didn’t even need that for a passport! You need birth certificate and things of this nature to prove your identity. Won’t you need exactly the same thing for this new ID card? Also, what if you lose the card? What kind of validation of payment with the card will the government require from companies? I hate to give these statists ideas but if they microchip the population like we do our pets and will soon do our groceries they could track us everywhere. The point is that this card would be tied to payroll from every company. If you are self employed do you need one to pay yourself?
Most people don’t remember when social security started as it was in the first half of the last century. That means that everyone today paying into social security should have their money there, right? Actually the social security lock box is full of IOUs from the government. If this happened in a business it would be jail time for raiding the pension plan. Originally and by law you are only required to give your social security number to the government for benefits or an employer for taxes. However it became a national ID number used by banks. So while you are not required to give your ID to get a loan you simply won’t get one if you don’t. Even weirder if you are Amish you don’t have to pay social security taxes because they are conscientious objectors. Given that it is in the red, is being operated like a Ponzi scheme and congress has repeatedly robbed it and left worthless IOUs I think it’s clear that only a fool would trust the government with their money any more than Bernie Madoff.
We have been assured this national ID card will not be misused like our social security number. That assurance is only as credible as the unicorn next to you. They plan on storing information on the card. Anyone who is paying attention to the bailouts knows the government is in bed with the big banks. How long until this card is networked in the financial world? How long until you need one of these cards to open a bank account? How long until this card replaces bank cards and the reader is being used for secure online purchases. How long until all currency is moved through your biometric ID card?
Granted that may seem a stretch, but the savings to the government would be huge. I doubt it would be easy to fully convert but the real motivation to fear is the government intrusion. You see if you have to carry this card with you for any reason it is quite easy to include an RFID tag that can be read if you are within 25 feet. That means anyone who has your ID number can now physically track you. Your employer could use this instead of a time clock and talk to you about your bathroom time. A store could target the rotation of marketing displays to audience. Intelligence agencies could track you even more accurately than with cameras. Your government and employer might even be able to review every purchase you make.
Granted you could say this is awfully paranoid, and you’d be right. However as the saying goes, just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me. In the 1990s I met someone who was here on an expired visa from South Africa. This person was causing me grief and it downed on my I could turn him in and have him deported. I called INS and to my surprise they couldn’t be bothered. I could go on and on about borders, jobs and people I know relevant to immigration issues but the bottom line is this. If there is a failure in the government why should every citizen give up their privacy to fix it?
We’re told this card will not be able to be cheated or forged. Whatever. One of the most astonishing news items I read recently was about the theft of thousands of computers and other gear from homeland security. Yeah, think about that. First you have to prove who you are… with paper documents. Then you have to be fingerprinted like a common criminal. Then you have, let me see, something like a voting machine to assure legitimacy. Oops! We know how many scandals have hit there. Finally, after we discount the creative abilities of black hats and the rampant theft of national security equipment we come down to the real consideration…
Border security is not a top priority. Enforcing laws is not a top priority. The fallback position instead is to compromise the privacy of every citizen and add expensive infrastructure and additional hurdles to employers. Why is it that we don’t allow web sites to aggregate specific personal data, only general aggregates without personal connections? Privacy. Why is it that we don’t allow companies to dip into pensions when they are short on cash? Propriety. Why are we so willing to trust a government that has shown that it will exclude it’s own actions from the the same regulation that we would place on any other entity. Of the people… for the people… by the people… or is it of the people, for the elites, by the aristocrats?
When I look at what is happening today I see a disconnect from the quintessential distrust our founders had for powerful central government. I see power corrupting and a central government that wants to control more and more of our lives. I would consider that to enact the most oppressive control government would need the most advanced means of monitoring and gathering data. I really don’t care how rational this proposition sounds. I have two words for you… Unintended consequences. If this were a credit card I could choose to consent. As a government plan who imagines it would be rolled back?
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 12:38 AM and is filed under social commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.