This. It's a national ID on a de facto basis and is very ill-suited for it, and not just because it's made of paper instead of plastic.

I did 30 years ago and it's never been an issue

Have these people never had to take care of any sort of important document? Like how do you treat contracts or education certificates?

Must be nice being so white you don’t have to worry about ICErandom unidentified masked gangster thugs that beat you and kidnap you.

Exactly. My card is in near mint condition despite having it for 30+ years because I've had to physically pull it out maybe 3-4 times total in my life. Same goes for the birth certificate. A driver's license is usually enough identity for jobs and whatnot in my experience. White privilege, I guess (which is ironic, because I'm more Mexican and Native American than white, but my skin is light so I get a pass).

because it’s an important document that you must keep in safe keeping? it does not expire like a passport, and it the premiere document to validate your identity (even though it was specifically designed to not do that)

it’s one of three documents demanded of you to verify your identity for job applications, getting back on voter rolls when you are suspiciously removed or proving citizenship when ice arrests you under suspicion of being too brown, getting a drivers license, getting a passport, and replacing it is expensive, time consuming, and difficult to prove if you need it. the real question is what justifies NOT laminating it?

Nope, it’s an extremely nonstandard size because fuck you!

I came here to say precisely this. Not that my parents did.

But when you change your name you get a new card. And mine is in one of these now.

You can still get another one after that, it just requires several more steps

I laminated mine years ago and still used it to get my Real ID. The dude looking it over said "that's fine" and waved me in. I had signed it when I was like 10 or something and the signature was absolutely nothing like what it is today. They were fine with that, too. Being white probably helped a lot.

I had a passport once I kept in the topbox of my motorcycle during a camping trip. It also had a stick of butter in it for cooking. this went fine when the temperature was sub 20°C. On the return day it was hot as hell however. I pulled out my passport at the ferry and it was covered in butter. The desk lady was like, da fuck?

weird American birth certificate

My mother was born and given up for adoption in a state that seals adoption records for 80 years. We found her birth family because her birth certificate had her birth name crossed out with a single pen line and her adopted name written in above it. We surmised that her birth middle and last names were actually her birth mother's full name and since it was a rare last name we were easily able to find her in the 1930 census. This allowed us to locate her birth mother's still-living sister. All went well, but this was certainly an egregious violation of the state's adoption laws.

I have to restrain myself when someone tells me I have to follow some trivial arbitrary stupidity while the people who make those rules commit the most heinous crimes right in front of our faces while laughing about it.

"Well DMV person, I actually do know that it's 'not allowed' and I knew it when I did it too. For you see, I do not give a single fuck about what I'm allowed or not allowed to do with a shitty little piece of paper that I own. So either accept it or don't."

What about all the oil, vinegar, and other toppings?

My college ID had our social on it up until 2004

So dumb. My driver licenses had that

If they gave us ID cards they’d have to let everyone vote who had one.

Can’t have that.

We have to demand ID and simultaneously make it have a time and fianancial cost in order to get one.

That's done by the individual states.

They want you to have that debt going as early as possible. I was in the red by middle school thanks to a family member using my number to write checks. Did it even matter that the number belonged to a little kid? Nope, go ahead and open that bank account and issue a check book!

Yes, and for most things, just the memorized number will be fine, but for stuff like applying for govt programs, getting a job, or obtaining a passport, the actual physical card is needed, unless you have enough other forms of ID.

You need to present it in certain cases (usually government stuff) as a part of ID verification. Other than that, I think everyone does just use the number since it is needed for tax forms every year. I'm old enough that my uni student ID used to be this number before they realized what a terrible ID that is (name, address, birthday, and SSN used to be enough to open bank accounts, credit cards, start/stop utilities, etc.)

687 53 09

I lost that card in the ocean in 1987 and I haven't had another one since