Also to the point is that Americans don't generally like the idea of having a country where you are REQUIRED to carry around identification. Except for reasonable PRIVILEGES such as driving or buying beer. We like that our RIGHTS (such as voting) are presumably unrestricted.
A few decades ago, the voter ID thing was hardly an issue. Most people just didn't like the idea of being required to have ID. No law says you need it (unless you're driving or something). As things change and younger generations get accustomed the erosion of privacy I wonder how this might change.
I wonder if my kids will have some debate in the future like: "Of course you need your RFID chip implanted before you upload your vote. How else can they identify who you are?"
Spot on. I just got an ID, and living in a small town with no DMV and having no driver's license, no car, and having to get there during work-hours made it balls difficult. The upshot was, if you're just getting an ID and need it to vote it's free (now that they passed that voter ID thing, I guess).
houstonderek, if the poor people you see are buying beer and cigarettes, they obviously have already paid for a damn ID and are thus not part of this equation. You are the second person I've seen saying "Well if they can buy beer they can buy an ID" on here and the failure in logic is mind-boggling.
you left out a little bit of the difficulty of getting the item necessary to get a state issued ID. Have you ever tried to get a copy of your birth certificate or social security card? Guess what the first thing they ask you for is.................a valid photo ID. Yes, there are ways around it, but it involves running around to several more places to gather more proof and many of those places want to see your valid photo ID before releasing THOSE records.
Yeah... cheese has no idea what being a boss entails. That's sad.
Let's put it this way. There is a reason why philanthropic billionaires don't all become Batman; they don't have time.
I love how according to drug abusing hippies, legalizing drugs will reduce the amount that people use them. It is complete nonsense. Criminalizing drugs works despite what potheads tell you. It is the same as how gun nuts say that more guns equals less crime. This is just as stupid. Sometimes you need to consider who did the studies when you hear the phrase "studies say". If someone says "studies say" something that goes against common sense, it it most likely a load of crap.
To be perfectly fair......most of the time whenever somebody uses the phrase "studies say" is almost entirely full of crap to begin with.You ask them "what studies?"......then they just say "look it up"....without providing any further detail.
Though by any measure, Americans have "voted" for pot being legal by nearly everyone doing it, at least a few times. By any measure, our wishes have been made clear. It gets murky when you move on to other drugs of course...and one thing I hate about marijuana is that it robs people of their ambition and makes them lazy, which if nothing else will affect their lifelong potential as human beings.
Actually, the "voter fraud" stuff is more insidious than that. The laws make it harder for poor, disabled, elderly, and young people to vote, so the laws tend to get promoted by people who don't do well among those populations. It's really a way to disenfranchise as many people as possible.
"For most of us, our ID is our driver's license, and it's easy to forget that lots of people don't drive because they're elderly, disabled, too poor or just don't feel like it."
...which is why all 50 states offer photo I.D.s for elderly, disabled, and "just don't feel like driving" types instead of drivers licenses. As for the "too poor"...too poor to afford $25 for an I.D.? Yeah, right. Some how these same people afford tattoos, scratch offs, custom rims, and packs 305s. Maybe they need to prioritize what's important to them.
About the tax issue, as long as you understand that you're paying 0% on $0 through $15,000, 15% on $15,001 through $75,000 (or whatever), 25% on $75,001 through $120,000 (or whatever), and 39% on $120,001 through infinity, the article will have served its purpose. I've seen that NO ONE gets this simple aspect of our lives.
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I am in that top bracket, and yes, it does lessen one's desire to work hard and achieve stuff. All things being equal, I'd love the idea of being a serial entrepreneur, but since my max tax rate is potentially 55% (I live in Japan, where they've started experimenting with "let's take more than half people's money and see how many move to Singapore"), it frankly isn't work my time and effort.
The Voter ID laws have nothing to do with stopping voter fraud. Only an idiot thinks that it would have any effect (Faux News). It is about suppressing the votes of those 11%. They are mostly democratic voters and those pushing the laws are mostly republicans.
This could have used a little better explanation of how voting works. You can't just walk in off the street and vote. In states without voter ID laws, you have to have a valid voter's registration card. If you are registered to vote and you don't have your card, you are required to show a valid, government issued, photo ID, which is matched to the voter registration rolls. If you are not on the voter rolls, you can cast a provisional ballot. Your vote will NOT be counted until it is proven that you are not only eligible to vote, but also cast your vote in the proper precinct. Most provisional ballots are never counted. If you walk in off the street without a voter's registration card or a valid, state issued, photo ID, you don't get to vote. We already have more than enough fail-safes in place to avoid voter fraud without adding more.
The GOP -The Party for Smaller Government*
*Except when it comes to regulating your bedroom, uterus, love life or voting booth, then we're getting all up in there!
Yes, the voter ID laws are to keep poor people from voting. Are you freaking kidding me? India has voter Id laws, and the majority of the people over thee make less than $2/day. The government simply provides free ID for voting. The chances are, even if you supply these "disenfranchised" voters with free ID cards, they still arent going to vote because they are stupid. Thats probably why they are poor in the first place
Voter ID is really just another way to disenfranchise the minorities and the poor. Because as this article said, who doesn't have an ID nowadays?