America is over.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20050527/ts_chicagotrib/socialsecuritycardplanaimstocurbfraud

Congress is moving to replace the paper Social Security cards issued to 280 million Americans with plastic, harder-to-counterfeit versions to try to curtail identity theft and the use of Social Security cards and numbers by some undocumented immigrants to obtain jobs.



Privacy and immigration advocates as well as business groups have concerns about the proposed cards. Critics fear the cards could become de facto national IDs and eventually play the role that identity papers have played over history in repressive societies. There also is worry that the proposal could mean trouble for immigrant workers and large criminal fines for employers.

[candy]

1. Large criminal fines for employers is a problem? Not for me.

[Mnemosyne]

Thanks Tand!

Afraid you are on to something here. It would be the perfect way to put the ID in place.

ARGH!!! @^$%*&#^$$(*&%^$ :banghead: :nuke:
:hi:
:kick:

[BobbyinPortland]

2. I don't understand the big deal

Anything that keeps our personal business safe is fine with me and I don't see why there's a big deal.

If you're not doing anything illegal I don't see the problem.

[Mnemosyne]

5. It's the small matter of being free from

big brother watching our every move!!

Your statement "If you're not doing anything illegal I don't see the problem." is the problem that's growing in this country, APATHY and ACCEPTANCE of the loss of civil rights.
Let's make sure they can watch everyone just in case they commit a crime.
:sarcasm:

[Dogmudgeon]

6. Suppose you are involved with a subversive terrorist group?

Like Democratic Underground?

Second question: How does a huge, monolithic, national ID card system keep "our personal business" safe?

That which is benign today may become malignant tomorrow. It's a very big deal, indeed.

--p!

[Cleita]

12. What if you become illegal?

This is how authoritarian governments operate. They make it illegal to be a Jew, a woman not wrapped in a black bedspread, a black man taking a shortcut through a white neighborhood.

Did you ever see the pictures of the crying Catholic children in Belfast, Ireland, who were dragged by their parents through a Protestant neighborhood? Why?

What happened is the school the children attended was closer if the children walked through the Protestant neighborhood instead of around it. You, see it was illegal for Catholics to walk through that neighborhood.

As a protest the parents of the children walked their children through the neighborhood to get the law changed. The terrified children of course cried.

So I hope what is illegal doesn't touch you personally because it might come by to bite you.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

13. It's obvious that you don't understand

What's to stop the govt from putting chips in the cards, or barcodes to identify us, etc.??? Plastic credit card type SS ID is the first step down that slippery slope to outright fascism.

"Personal safety" has very little to do with it, and it doesn't matter if I'm completely legal all the time. Why the fuck would I want the govt keeping that close an eye on me all the time?

[Bluerthanblue]

15. depends...alot

...on who and what is determining exactly what constitutes 'illegal'-
flying on a plane already makes a person a 'potential' terrorist-

i hate what this nation has become- FDR spoke such truth-

"the ONLY thing we have to fear, is FEAR itself"

rabbits can die of fright- maybe that's a blessing, living in fear and suspicion is begining to seem pretty pointless.

[dweller]

3. interesting

years ago i laminated mine, to keep it from wearing out anymore than it already had by carrying it around in a wallet for years.
suffice to say i was told by an employee HR person they couldn't accept it since i had 'altered' it. Had to apply for another one.
So at the SocSec office, i asked the person why they didn't make them more permanent material, since i recalled hearing about metal ones issued years before. I was told it 'had to be paper since then they could tell if it had been changed in any way', thus voiding it.

dp

ps. how's it going TS? good to see you onboard again.

[merh]

4. Okay, let me step out of group think here and honestly say,

I don't see a problem with this. For identification purposes and for employment purposes, I understand the need for the social security card. The national ID card fears are probably the same fears liberals had when the social security numbers and cards were first proposed.

Why does this concern everyone?

Now if they want to tatto me or insert a micro chip under my skin, then I will be angry. Carrying a card doesn't push my buttons.

[Wright Patman]

7. When the cards are counterfeited

by the huge industry in this country catering to the illegal immigrants (as will inevitably occur), you will probably change your mind and say, "Oh, well, if that's what it takes, implant me with the microchip."

This is called the "slippery slope." When you begin to descend down it, it bcomes impossible to stop at some point.

[merh]

10. I don't see it.

The cards are part of the privatization efforts, some private company will win the bid and make them, another will win the bid to provide the security and track them.

They are just hard forms of social security cards which we have had to carry for years. The only difference is, some of their corporate cronies will profit from their creation, distribution and protection.

There are too many other things about this administration that concern me, making me carry another type of social security card is the least of my concerns.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. If you don't see a problem with this...

Then you are just the citizen these people are looking for.

Good god, people, this will strip our last privacy rights from up. The government will have a file on everything you do. Everything.

There will be no more freedom. None.

[crowcalling]

9. I agree...

Regarding doing anything illegal - the term illegal is relative to the folks who are in power.

With our new theocratic radical judges we should expect the term underground to gain new meaning.. underground such as secret meetings in tunnels with whispered conversations and lookouts posted at the doors while the ID cards have been left in strategic locations...

[soda]

11. do you feel a draft?

It will also help to keep track of all the draft age people.
anywhere,anytime,anyone. would be a good ad line

[Karenina]

14. They could be mandated

to be worn on those Kugelkette Dingsbums, like dogtags. Jes' punch a hole in the corner! But tattoos and chips are better technologies against "theft." :evilgrin:

[newyawker99]

16. Hi soda!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[soda]

17. hi newyawker99

Thanks for the welcome,how do you feel about the new ID card?