Identity Documents
When comparing the interaction between people in a city to that of a
small town, one realizes that people are generally much more polite to
each other in small towns. That is because the people know they will see
each other again. In a small town if you flip someone off at the
traffic light, there is a good chance you will bump into them later at
the supermarket or in church or at someone's party.
Consequentially, people generally treat each other better in small
towns, or at least they respect each other more. Small town are
places 'where everyone knows your name'.
The question we ask is whether Identity Documents actually provide
any 'small town benefit". While Identity Documents expose your
name, they also eliminate your privacy. It is relatively easy to
forge ID documents, so criminals and spies generally have ways to get
around the ID issue, negating it's benefit there. Ironically
arguments made by governments relating to the need for Identity
Documents generally go along the line of the need to police and control
the populous. Identity Documentation is generally enforced by
regimes who are at war. The predominant use of ID documents by the
government is to mug the public with petty fines. More interesting
uses of ID documents and centralized databases is reflected by our
founders experience:
 under
development more later...
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