US now allows passport renewals online. - eviltoast
  • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    We don’t have a national ID, which is part of the issue. As a result, regular identification is by state depts (motor vehicles).

    It also means for passports, you need to either fill out the form and mail it in, or visit a State Dept office for some expedited options (requires specific reasons to do so, requires an appointment).

    In recent years, the Postmaster General has royally screwed the post office (that’s a whole separate thing, so I won’t go into that here. Short answer, Trump). So it runs pretty inefficiently, and that’s the main way that people are getting passports.

    So… Several reasons why.

    • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
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      2 months ago

      You forgot the primary reason is Republicans voting against anything that encourages budget increases or improves efficient processes for government agencies.

      • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        Social security is not identification though. We can’t call it that because its a crap ID. Closer would be RealID, but that’s still reliant on the state.

        So I’d disagree saying SS is a national ID, its a number not identification.

          • DempstersBox@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I don’t youtube.

            My understanding is most other countries (and our credit card #'s) have …self-identifying? …some spiffy numbers built into them that cryptographically verify that they’re not fakes, whereas the US’s SSN is pretty much just an incremental number assignation and has zero additional info built into it.

            Like I know sisters that have sequential SSN’s because there was a snafu and they got assigned them at the same time, rather than when they each were born.

            Of course, I’m entirely against the whole fucking idea of giving people a fucking barcode at all, but that’s an idealogical argument for another time