Reply #110: It's not a statistical issue.

[Leopolds Ghost]

This is why I'm leery of the branch of liberalism that says, if we merely restore "rationalism" "science" and "meritocracy" (i.e. the technocratic approach, a legitimate and common opinion among Dem policymakers) that the problems to be addressed by a utilitarian approach (the most benefit to the most citizens) will go away.

I agree with Ursula LeGuin's famous rebuttal of that approach.

If even one person has their rights denied by this ritualistic and frankly religious insistence on flashing ID (similar to the Romans killing Christians for refusing to throw incense at official gods they themselves no longer really believed in), then it doesn't matter to me if the result is programmed intentionally to ensure the well-being of the rest of humanity.

I'm sure Ursula LeGuin had a few choice words about the morality of George Bush torturing 1 innocent person in order to stop a million from being killed, because she wrote a famous short story about it.

In this case, we are not torturing non-drivers and people who don't have credit and a mortgage, merely excluding them, just like people hwo don't have credit (the actual poor) are now excluded from all new public housing, and people without ID can no longer walk on the streets of sidewalk-less cities without being detained in some locations for "vagrancy".