I believe that it is long-past time for the US to implement a proper national ID for all citizens: currently, we use Social Security numbers & cards in place of a proper ID, but Social Security numbers / cards are notoriously insecure. In fact, older Social Security cards used to print “NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION” on the bottom because they are so insecure, but most people used them anyway so they took that off to avoid confusion. According to this US Dept. of Justice report in 2012 and 2014 identity theft affected about 7% of the entire adult population of the United States, the insecurity of Social Security numbers is the leading factor. I expect the annual rate of identity theft in the US is still about 7% per year, it is a major issue. In contrast, I could not find another country that suffers to the same degree as the United States from identity theft, but in Europe (where most countries issue national IDs) identity theft appears to affect far fewer citizens (less than 0.01% per year, but I could not find a study to support that number).

Yes! I know there is some objection to national ID here in the US, but we already use SS as a national ID (and an authentication secret!) when it’s woefully insufficient. The way we use our SS numbers is embarrassing and extremely harmful, but the situation is left to get worse just like our infrastructure because our government is systematically incapable of doing anything besides moving the margins on services and protections here and there.