Quote Originally Posted by WyrreJ
That assertation is 100% false.

Ok only 99% false.

That 1% of correctness applies to the first 6 months or so during which all the ID forgers in the entire country are still spinning up on the now nationwide standard.

Once you have 50x the people focused on forging the single, standardized set of IDs, the quality level will go through the roof. The end result will be forgeries of the highest quality for prices lower then ever before. Economics applies to criminal enterprise just as much as it does to any other kind.
I disagree. Most forgers go for the easiest targets - the state drivers licenses that have minimal security features - because they don't have the budget or expertise or equipment to reproduce the highest quality cards.
What I do agree with is there is probably no technology that will be impossible to forge, but there are technologies that make it extremely difficult and expensive, which will put the majority of forgery operations out of business. This will raise the cost of a forged card and decrease the number of cards produced.

Quote Originally Posted by WyrreJ
Meanwhile, most people aren't even asking the really important questions -

Why do we need identity cards?
How did we go from a license to drive to a license to travel?
What compelling interest is there for the government to force a national identity system on law-abiding citizens?
What happened to the fourth amendment - right of the people to be secure in their ... papers ... against unreasonable searches ?
The answer to these questions is simple. You need an ID to use certain select modern conveniences, i.e. credit cards, driving a personally owned vehicle, travelling on an airplane. These aren't constitutionally guaranteed rights, these are conveniences. If you want to live "under the radar" you can pay for everything with cash and ride the bus or walk everywhere you go. This is fine if you are a recluse, but makes your life much more difficult if you're a terrorist. Nothing in the bill says you have to have an ID card.