On 7-2-2010 22:38, Warp wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>>>   In Finland there would be no need for that. The government knows every
>>> single citizen and can call them (for whatever) if needed.
> 
>> It must make things much easier to have a government that's trusted. :-)
> 
>   Distrust in the government and the government knowing all citizens are
> not mutually exclusive things.
> 
>   It would be rather difficult, and foolish, to try to have a child
> without the government knowing. (It would be foolish because you would
> be forgoing child support, tons of free services, and making your child's
> life a nightmare later.)

Indeed, although this might sound that it is a recent invention. Even a 
one century or more ago it was useful to register your children. It is 
easy to see that if you track children born and their parents for a few 
generations (and register all immigrants) you know every legal person in 
the country.

I have often wondered why the US do not track all citizens. E.g. why 
does one city not notify the city someone has come from when they go to 
live in that new city? It would also be handy to get useful information 
like if someone was convicted for a serious crime and has therefore no 
right to vote. Or is that precisely the reason why they are not allowed 
to share information?

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