Speaking of stupidity
Jun. 28th, 2005 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulroDuring my down-time at work today I was reading the readers' comments to ID cards on bbc.co.uk.
I lost track of how many people said "I support ID cards but not if I have to pay. The government should pay." Who the hell do they think ultimately pays if the government picks up the tab? DUH! (Unless, of course, they're terminally unemployed & don't pay tax. But still.)
One person commented that the USA has standard biometric ID that you have to show everywhere. News to me. Best I can think of is having to show ID to write a cheque, but again that's not compulsory because you could always pay cash and I hadn't heard US drivers licenses had gone biometric. (I have to admit the English system of having a cheque guarantee card is infintely superior).
Anxiously awaiting the result of the same-sex marriage vote in Ottawa, but figure it'll just about be being broadcast when I get up tomorrow given the time difference & there's no point in sitting up. I do desperately hope Harper gets in deep shit for his comments about BQ votes invalidating the process.
Enough wibble. We are having a nifty thunderstorm though.
I lost track of how many people said "I support ID cards but not if I have to pay. The government should pay." Who the hell do they think ultimately pays if the government picks up the tab? DUH! (Unless, of course, they're terminally unemployed & don't pay tax. But still.)
One person commented that the USA has standard biometric ID that you have to show everywhere. News to me. Best I can think of is having to show ID to write a cheque, but again that's not compulsory because you could always pay cash and I hadn't heard US drivers licenses had gone biometric. (I have to admit the English system of having a cheque guarantee card is infintely superior).
Anxiously awaiting the result of the same-sex marriage vote in Ottawa, but figure it'll just about be being broadcast when I get up tomorrow given the time difference & there's no point in sitting up. I do desperately hope Harper gets in deep shit for his comments about BQ votes invalidating the process.
Enough wibble. We are having a nifty thunderstorm though.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 09:22 pm (UTC)It's interesting - every time citizens don't want to pay for something it's "Government money", but every time they don't like what the government has spent it on it's "taxpayers' money". Grrrr.
Mind you, I also get annoyed when people talk about how they need to sack lots of civil servants. Somehow 8-14,000 jobs going at Rover is a disaster, yet over 100,000 jobs being axed without consultation is OK.
US ID
Date: 2005-06-29 08:31 am (UTC)ID is issued by the individual states, on a state by state basis. Mostly in the form of drivers licences, although they also issue non-driver ID cards.
As for being required to show it everywhere, the *law* doesn't say that...but most businesses feel that they have the right to see it for all sorts of stuff, and the police behave as if it were, and will demand to see ID at the drop of a hat.
Personally I don't leave the house without ID, even to take a walk outside, because the hassles that can ensue from not having any can be so great.