andrel wrote:
> The Netherlands is no less complicated, yet we have been able to do it 
> for about 200 years. Basically since Napoleon.

Actually, I think the difference is two-fold:

1) People actually get a benefit out of reporting to a central authority 
immediately when they move. Here, the government only knows where you live 
after you've moved, when you file taxes or register your car or whatever.

2) And this is the big one: That info is made available to everyone else. I 
tell lots of people inside and not inside the government where I live. 
There's just no central repository that's authoritative and that is 
generally available to the public, such that others could use that 
information for purposes other than why it was collected.

That latter point is more my statement. It's not that we have lots of 
jurisdictions. It's that we have lots of competing governments. The federal 
government often has to threaten the state governments to pass laws the 
federal government isn't allowed to pass. And there's constantly battles, 
threats by the states to overthrow the federal government, relatively little 
cooperation between distant states, etc. For example, most states have 
agreements with their neighbors that if I get a traffic ticket in (say) New 
York, Pennsylvania will be informed. But if I get a traffic ticket in New 
York, chances are good California will never hear about it.  So it's not 
just that "the government" doesn't know where I am, but that there's no part 
of the government specifically assigned the duty of tracking where I am. And 
there's nothing in the constitution (quite to the contrary, actually) that 
says the federal government is allowed to provide that service, and doing it 
on a state level would only work for the states.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
   I get "focus follows gaze"?

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