The Government Internet ID Proposal

An anonymous reader writes "Is it the beginning of government tracking? An expert on electronic privacy walks through the possibilities and perils of a national online security system run, in part, by the US Department of Homeland Security."

Comments

Re:Not apples to apples

[Mr. Slippery]

A private business doesn't have the special right to employ coercion (meaning physical force) as a business model.

Of course it does. A private business requires property, and property is force: the right to call upon government force to control someone else's access to or use of space or resources or even information. (Or, if you like a more rough-and-tumble model, the right to be immune to government prosecution after initiating one's own use of force to control someone else's access.)

In a sane, functioning democracy, that force is used only to protect and promote the fulfillment of human needs, the "natural rights". In a plutocracy, it is used to protect the privilege of the ruling class.

Where government exists, that force exists. The only question is whether that force is directed for the mutual good, or towards the privilege of a few.

(If you want to talk about anarchy, fine, but we have to start with the understanding that all property, as the concept currently exists, is rooted in government -- "anarcho-capitalism" or right-Libertarianism is an inherent contradiction. In an anarchy, there is neither government power nor private power.)