National ID Cards
...e nation and is understood by all the European countries. Arguably, in a country like the US where each state is governed by different laws and issues different types of driver’s licenses, it would be helpful to have one piece of identification that is the same across the nation. In the case of Switzerland one might think that it can only work because the country is so little and the population quite small, however other countries such as Canada have the equivalent which is a citizenship card. The citizenship card is a piece of identification that can always be accepted and has no expiry date, perhaps one of its drawbacks, seeing as some people still own citizenship cards with their baby picture on it. Yet it is convenient because it is nationally accepted and does not differ from province to province. Having a national identification card would force the country to gain a new sense of unity – and if nothing else would be convenient. Photo identification is critical in the US and is needed for virtually everything ranging from purchasing an alcoholic beverage to applying for a credit card or getting a driver’s license. Making one piece of photo identification available for every US citizen to have which they can present at any of these many situations would not only be convenient to the citizens themselves, however it could also help lessen the effect that false identification has within the country. The US drinking age which happens to be 21 nation wide, is an unrealistic law that most citizens must realize rarely gets abided by. This law suggests that the average university student wait till their third year before tasting their first beer or shot – any person who has spent a week at a university campus will soon realize that the great abundance of intoxicated people they will encounter at night could not all possibly be upperclassman. How these underclassman purchased the alcohol is not a mystery, the creation of false identification cards is an industry in itself in this day and age. There are several websites dedicated to selling these cards and many older students who are willing to sell you their old ID cards. However, if there were national identification cards that had to be presented at the purchase of alcohol then one would not be able to get away with using a questionable looking laminated piece of paper as identification. This is one example as to how identification cards could be used to help enforce laws. Needless to say this would only work if the identification cards were designed intelligently so that they could not be forged. One question of concern might be how to issue 280 million US citizens with cards. The easy solution to that is not to make them a requirement. Merely present the citizens with the option of having one and they will soon realize how convenient it is to have one seeing as it would be the one piece of identification that no store or organization could refuse and would be nationally accepted and internationally recognized. Ideally the card should be relatively inexpensive and the government should not be reaping a profit for making these cards available. This is a service they should offer and the charges applied should cover the production of the card and all labor costs involved. Realistically, someone will find a way to make a profit out of this, however, the reason it should be kept to a minimum is that the goal is to make this card available to every citizen, irrelevant of their social class. The drawbacks of these cards would come into existence with the integration of a computer chip. It would mean that a lot more information is contained in the card than meets the eye and one decision that will have to be made is what information is kept on the card and who has the right to view it. However, having said that it appears that whether or not they integrate the chip into the possible new identification cards might not even be such a great issue as another present debate is integrating computer chips into passports. Naturally this law would extend to all individuals who want to enter the US as well. If these chips exist internationally in everyone’s passport, including your own, then why not in your identification card as well? Of course one reason is that it is yet another infringement on civil rights as was alluded to in the introduction. It is desirable to know who has access to the information on the chip and what sort of information will be contained on it in the first place. W...