Re: [privacy] Social Security Card to be National ID?

["C Q" <kyle.c.quest () gmail com>]

It's a great idea to have a national id that's hard to forge...
and even if not every place has a biometric card reader
if the card is properly designed you'll be able to spot a fake
(e.g., think special paper we use for money... with water
marks and metal strips. and even though the money is far
from perfect it's relatively easy to spot a fake by touch and
by simply looking at them). This way even the farmers or whoever
who don't have computers will be able to check the legality
of their workers.

Illegal aliens are one of the major problems in the US
(we are not unique... any western country suffers from
it... UK, France, etc... and even Mexico, which is kinda funny considering
that they are also trying to get rid of illegal aliens
from their southern borders).

Yes, it's true that not everybody who want to come
to the states and work can do that, but it's not because
there's no legal way... it's because there are literally hundreds
of millions of people who live in bad conditions. It's physically
impossible take them all in... the country will simply fall apart.
It's like a case when you have ship sinking and there's enough
life boats only for a few people... if everybody tries to get
on those few boats the boats will sink and everybody will drown.
The US can not save everybody less fortunate in the world.
We do take more legal immigrants every year than any other
country in the world (I forgot the exact numbers, but I seem to
remember it's about 3 million people) and on top of that
we have a number of "guest worker" programs. H1B is one
of them, but there are a number of others as well, which is
teens from South Africa end up working as sky instructors
during winters and kids from Scotland and Russia end up working
in movie theaters during summers here in New England.

The funny thing is that unlike UK or Australia (I might be a bit off
on the names of the countries a bit... getting late) who use a point
based system to determine who should get in their country
our process is random, so we don't really get the best and the brightest.

It's important to have a tamper-proof id that verifies a person's
identity and his/her national status. It's the least we can do
and I personally don't see a big deal why people are so scared
of this. Other countries have internal passports as mandatory
national IDs... and nothing terrible happens to people there.
We have technology to do this and it doesn't have to be too
high tech.



On 5/17/07, Fergie <fergdawg () netzero net> wrote:
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> Via Homeland Stupidity.
>
> [snip]
>
> Two proposals being floated around Capitol Hill call for the Social
> Security card to be updated with biometric information and for U.S.
> employers to be required to verify it with the Department of Homeland
> Security when hiring.
>
> Scared yet? You should be. While everyone was off fighting the REAL ID
> battle, national identification proponents were sneaking in the back door,
> arguing that the Social Security card should be updated with the latest
> technology to prevent illegal immigrants from working.
>
> Under the so-called Bonner Plan, citizens and resident aliens alike would
> have to obtain a new Social Security card containing their photograph, a
> barcode or magnetic stripe containing an encrypted signature verifiable
> through card readers provided by the Department of Homeland Security, and
> would have to present this card in order to obtain work. The plan provides
> that employers who fail to verify the card face fines, prison time, and
> would be billed for the cost of deporting any illegal aliens they may have
> hired.
>
> Of course, they're still claiming that the card wouldn't be a national
> ID card. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it certainly
> isn't a sheep.
>
> [snip]
>
> More:
>
> http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2007/05/16/social-security-card-to-be-natio
> nal-id/
>
> - - ferg
>
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>
> --
> "Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
> Engineering Architecture for the Internet
> fergdawg(at)netzero.net
> ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/
>
>
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