The government can already identify you, and your identity is easy to steal. Making a better ID system just removes the identity theft issue.
The other nice thing would be you could use the id number instead of your name so you can stop giving your PII out to every business. Just “here’s my ID number, bill my insurance, you don’t need anything else.”
SSN’s main issues are that it’s hard to change, and it’s predictable. If they know your date of birth and where you were born then they can reliably determine your SSN. And once your SSN is out, it’s very difficult to change unless your identity was already stolen.
I have no idea why you just asking a question got down voted.
We definitely do need one. Right now it’s a hodge podge of crap that wasn’t meant to be an identifier and it makes identity theft easy, and our privacy isn’t even being protected because we still have an SSN and tax ID.
Having worked in the medical space, a lack of identifier is actually a huge issue that causes problems for people daily, especially people changing their names for whatever reason.
Oh that’s good to know. I’m gonna go pull a laser designator warning off of a wrecked tank.