re: #200 wheat-dogghazi-bola

My friends in China are surprised when I say Americans use drivers licenses as our ID cards. The national ID card here is required to buy train tickets and many online services. Fortunately for me, a foreign passport is also acceptable for tickets and most of those services, too.

In Germany, you go down to the polling place where you are registered (often a bar or restaurant in small towns without a school or town hall), present your ID card, and vote.

And the ID card is needed to register a car, open a bank account, sign a lease or an employment contract, register children for school, etc.

Americans are willing to pay a big price for their “freedom” of not having to carry or produce an ID card.