Digital ID cards pros and cons

Pros

Reduce extensive paperwork, Universal Credit is a beaurocratic nightmare

3-13% GDP gain from less fraud (especially with online scammers and ID theft), streamlined banking, productivity

Consolidate and replace many other forms of ID, like Government Gateway, NHS number, National Insurance number, library card, driving licence, blue badges

Helps bring more government services online, rather than phoning someone between 10am and 4pm or posting letters

Remove the need to pay for ID in the form of driving licence, passport, or Citizen ID card

Should help get a bank account and a job for those without one, and without a fixed address or other forms of ID, which makes it easier to vote, open a business, and access justice

Make it easier to access adult content without sharing your data with third parties, rent and buy houses, pay bills, and cars and phone

Streamline applications for migrants and refugees

Many countries already have it and it's considered normal, in Estonia it can also be used to vote

Reduces fraud in benefits such as undeclared income, savings or partners

Cons

Higher priorities for spending money like addressing poverty such as food banks. A good system will cost billions, but weigh that against lost productivity from existing beaurocracy from multiple forms of ID

Risk of single point of failure, stopping or excluding people accessing any service

We already have National Insurance Number, this is just adding to more things we need - it would likely replace it

Not everyone has a smartphone, computer or internet, forcing poor people to pay for one. There would have to be a solid alternative (e.g. physical card, or free phone)

High security and fraud risk, though paper documents are already highly forged

Risk of surveillance by tracking your activities, which could lead to denying public access by creating checkpoints and social credit scores

Errors could cripple someone's livelihood or access with no appeals process

In summary, making them mandatory, and without a solid alternative non-mobile plan, will create barriers for poor people, or just unlucky people.

However, a good, secure, Estonia-like ID system with civilian oversight so it is not misused for surveillance, accessible to everyone regardless of finances, with an easy way to fix errors, would help everyone.

Sandwich

 

https://cuberule.com/

"Sandwich" to me is a very narrow definition.

• When you go to the sandwich isle of Tesco for a meal deal, you expect things like BLT, tuna mayo, cheese triple. You don't expect there to be a roll, a burger, a taco, a baguette, or a hot dog. Those will be in their own section.
• When you go to Split airport in Croatia, and they close the majority of shops at night time with only one stall left open, all they advertise they are selling is "sandwiches". And they only 2 options: chicken, or cheese.
• When there's an announcement on a GWR train saying the cart is coming through selling "sandwiches, crisps, soft drinks, tea and coffee", I'm not expecting them to have a hot dog.
• When I look at a local indie artisan coffee shop brunch menu, and look under the section for sandwiches, hot dog isn't under there, hot dog is in its own section, if at all.
• If you go on Family Fortunes, and you're asked to name sandwiches from a survey of 100 people, the top result is probably BLT.
• If you look for emojis of sandwiches, none of them are hot dogs.

Sandwich has a specific structure, and there is an expected, small subset of predictable sandwiches.

Not a sandwich:

• Chip butty, despite having the structure of a sandwich, has its own name, and does not fall into the category of predictable sandwiches.
• Ice cream sandwich throws a spanner to this: it's not a predictable sandwich, so it's not a type of sandwich, but, it does borrow the sandwich only by name and structure. 
• A sub, wrap, or burrito might appear in a certain subsection of the Tesco meal deal area next to sandwiches, but because they have a different structure and their own name, they aren't sandwiches - even if they have predictable fillings.

When we say sandwich without context, we mean a subset with predictable structure and fillings.

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