At 12:29 PM 7/15/94 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
Not addressed in Duncan's essay was my chief concern: The "National Benefits Card" is required to get license plate tags. (And maybe other things, like car and home insurance, etc.)
This can't be required because corporations and other legal entities can own cars and these entities can, in turn, be owned by non-resident foreigners. Funny story. A couple of weeks ago, I rented a car from (a major car rental agency) in a NE state. They gave it to me for a week. It had Florida plates. The registration expired at the end of June, three days into my week-long rental. I drove an "unregistered" car with the permission (albeit unknowing) of a major corporation for 4 days. Also hard to break the Clean Team/Dirty Team technique where one family member owns the cars and the others drive. Same with property ownership. If demand develops, I expect that some enterprising members of the "underclass" will be able to rent their identities or rights to conduct transactions to those who need them. Government penalties won't faze them.
If I fail to pay, I lose my car insurance (which makes me ripe for a "deep pockets" lawsuit by anyone who gets into an accident with me). Lots of other implications. Very real implications.
It is *much* easier to protect your assets from a private party than from the government. Private parties usually can't afford to sue you in the Cook Islands to try and break your Foreign Asset Protection Trust.
I continue to see great dangers here, in tying a national ID card to transactions we are essentially unable to avoid in this society: driving, insurance (and let's not argue insurance...I mean it is unavoidable in the sense of legal issues, torts, etc.), border crossings, etc.
Tim, I sense that you suffer from the great American Insurance Addiction. The belief that it is possible to eliminate all risk if you pay massive amounts of money to an insurance company. This tends not to work. It leads to mandatory insurance laws that lead to exploding insurance costs that lead to system collapse. Judgment proofing oneself is cheaper.
Now how will one file taxes without such a card if one is made mandatory for interactions with the government? Saying "taxes are not collectable" is not an adequate answer. They may not be collectible for street punks and others who inhabit the underground economy, but they sure are for folks like me.
If you fail to include your SS# on your tax form but it is otherwise complete and they have their dough, they don't prosecute. Remember "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" in which our hero's father kept his money in several cookie jars including one labeled "Uncle Sam" and then once a year emptied that one out and sent it to the government: IRS Agent: But you have to fill out a tax form Taxpayer: The government can't even require that you be able to read and write. In 1993, the IRS referred approximately 350 cases to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Out of 20 million tax evaders that's a pretty blunt sword. Note that the current ID requirements under the 1986 Immigration Act have had the sole effect of *dropping* the price of an SS Card and a California Driver's License on the streets of East LA from circa $50 to circa $20 (due to economies of scale presumably). More technically advanced ID will merely encourage people to become self employed (a good thing in any case). Germany has much tighter ID requirements than we do. Illegals there work through contract employment firms that accept the risk for profit. On the subject of border controls. The DDR tried machine guns, barbed wire, and concrete as border controls. It worked for less than 30 years and "that was then this is now." Things move faster these days. Even with anti-foreigner hysteria, Germany, France, and the Benelux countries recently eliminated crossing controls. The others in the EU "inner 9" should follow soon. NAFTA should reduce ours as well. Note BTW that Mexican vehicles (including trucks) will get ease of entry in a couple of years. Good place to register your car? As more countries become "developed" and world real income doubles and doubles again (with shorter doubling times) travel for all purposes will explode. It will make current travel rates (the highest in history) look insignificant. Swamping is bound to occur. Since we've established that direct application of force will have to be increasingly rare (cost factors) that leaves control freaks with only denial of service to fall back on. Since DOS leaves unfilled demands (if the service denied is something people actually want) it will create its own market opportunity. Markets have become *much* more efficient at this sort of arbitrage these days. Note that those denied credit cards because of bad credit suddenly have dozens of secured credit cards to choose from. Tim has claimed that the government will get markets to reject willing customers who have money to spend because they lack their 'US Card'. That runs counter to the entire history of markets. People will find a way to buy what they want. DOS attacks will just leave people increasingly outside the government system where some of us want to see them in any case. DCF "What is the first thing a 'Rocket Scientist' Derivative Designer says when he's told that Chairman Gonzales of the House Banking Committee is out to crush derivatives. 'Gee, you mean to tell me that I'll have to charge another couple a hundred thou to design a new derivative to eliminate the new regs? No rest for the weary.'"