On Paper: We choose not between Marx and Adam Smith but between the DMV and the Apple store.

The National Review ^ | May 11, 2014 | Kevin D. Williamson

[2ndDivisionVet]

I am preparing to renew my driver’s license, a process requiring some considerable preparation. My last trip to a driver’s-license bureau, in Norwalk, Conn., ended with my giving very serious thought to returning later in the evening and burning the place down, the process having been so backward and the people so hateful. I have in my life had a number of unpleasant encounters with government agencies — handcuffed in Texas, terrorized by Mexican federales, assets seized by the IRS, chased about by India’s immigration authorities, etc. Frankly, I’d rather be pepper-sprayed than pay another visit to the Norwalk DMV.

I do not expect the New York City version to be much better, but I’ll withhold judgment until the facts are in. But before I could even do that, there were other preparations to be made. For example, my passport, issued by the U.S. State Department, is perfectly adequate to get me through customs and immigration at any airport in U.S. territory, and is a fully functional form of identification anywhere in the country, and most of the world, except for a New York DMV office. For that, you need a couple of forms of identification, one of which must be a Social Security card. The mutation of the Social Security card from proof of enrollment in Social Security into a federal quasi-ID is itself a long and stupid story, and, if you happen to have lost yours in the course of having had a dozen home addresses in the past 20 years, rest assured that you’ll need more than a passport to get one. For that, you’ll need an original birth certificate...

[Lion Den Dan]

The birth ceertificate is a key document used in establishing identity. The way the author obtained his official copy and the way I obtained mine are not secure; that is just about anyone could obtain the copy and claim to be someone they are not. In my case, I made a phone call, gave my name and DOB and my mother’s maiden name. Gave a credit card number (my wife’s, not mine, and had official documents within a week in the mail.

[Tax-chick]

I see what you mean now, and you’re right.

[trebb]

I’m not sure what current SS cards look like, but mine says “not to be used for identification.”

Yep - no picture. Of course, a birth certificate has the same "problem". Besides, we know from a "prominent politician" that all is bogus in the end.

[Fire_on_High]

That’s been my experience as well. Treat the counter clerk like a human being and your experience is generally pretty painless. Choosing what time you go in wisely is the other half of the equation.

[Kenny Bunk]

NR Is certainly hiring some awesomely nerdy dweebs these days.

Of course the Norwalk DMV is Mexican Brain Root Canal. Norwalk has devolved into a bit of a Third World Hell-Hole.

Try another office.