If you require KYC for buying and changing cards then SIM swapping becomes impossible as nobody can get a new SIM card with your phone number by social engineering the carrier.

You would have to show ID if a police officer pulled you over. It's literally how the previous commenter described. The EU has the schengen area, which is an open boarders agreement that works nearly identically to the open boarders agreement between US states.

The reason the social security card says not to use it for identification is beause it's really bad at it. But it is used as an ID number anyway. The US doesn't have a national ID system in theory, but in practice it does. Not having an official national ID number just makes it less secure and convenient.

Hospitals used to track you by name and address, with no problem. They did for me for decades. Using a government ID number isn’t necessary, organizations just like exerting control.

Yes... and then you've those same hospital selling your data to insurance companies (or being owned by them) because that's mostly the way they've to keep track of people and have updated medical records across the country.

Meanwhile in Europe what you get is the govt manages your healthcare data and hospital simply access and update the data in a controlled and organized fashion by typing your social security number into a govt provided system. You, as patient, also get an SMS message asking for permission whenever they want to access information / do certain actions or just notifications of data access. Prescriptions use the same system, you walk out of a clinic / hospital without any papers, just go into a pharmacy and they can pull what's prescribed to you.

And no, in the US you don’t need to have ID to go anywhere. You can drive from California to Maine never having to show an ID - why should you?

Well I can drive across multiple countries in Europe using highways without ever stopping or showing IDs... however if some police officer appears and asks for it I'm required to show it by law.

Also, your social security number is not to be used as an ID - states so right on the card. Let’s think about the implications of that statement, vs what is occurring today.

Yes, because the US doesn't have the concept of a citizen ID / identity card and people are identified by stuff like a social security number or a driving license (lol)... there's almost no standardization when it comes to identifying people in the US (especially across states) and social security shouldn't be used to identify people mostly because in the US there's no useful central database thus those numbers might not be correct, unique etc.

In Europe countries have way more autonomy and sovereignty than any US state yet there's a cross-border framework for identifying people. Every country has it's own citizen card that follows certain rules, usually includes a single (or multiple) numbers that are used as citizen ID, social security ID for taxes. Those cards are also required to contain a chip (smartcard), allowing for the secure digital identification and authentication as well as the digital signatures - you can login into any govt service with your card a PIN and/or sign contracts with it for instance. Some people such as lawyers, doctors and accountants are even required by law to sign documents with those cards instead of handwriting because forging signatures is doable while forging a X.509 digital signature isn't possible.

I'm not sure how they track illegal aliens that they've opted not to export just yet, but by definition, once they are in the system by way of intentional interaction with the government, they are "documented". Becomming identified/identifiable is far from impossible; Its an inconvenient pain though.

All it takes to get a library card is a piece of mail. For that mail, an address. Homeless shelters(among others, but here its free of charge) provide address/mail services(of a sort, and by request). Library card + piece of mail plus some sort of birth certificate(think a foreign one will do) will get you a State ID, generally issued at the DMV/BMV, but you don't have to pass a driving exam for an ID.

Getting ID alone is not the problem. The problem is all the baggage it un-packs into a mess on the floor. IMHO, someone who takes the initiative to literally tell the government who they are and where they live should be allowed to work, rent an apartment, recieve healthcare, and otherwise be left alone unless they need help or commit a crime ... hell, make them citizens after x years "above board" ... but that's not the state we live in.

"Work Permit"/"Visa"/whatever, should come with some guarantees/privileges/obligations(for any party bring an immigrant/potential in), like, thanks for letting us know you're coming, here's your job, some necessities/food and a place to stay until you can afford better. Whenever we hit the point that NOT having those things meant illegal/criminal is one of the tipping points where the US became less free. I don't care what an idividual has done, that damage to our Liberty and the promise of "The American Dream" was worse, no matter your criteria.

Immigmants bring prosperity and good will. Always have and still do(todays immigrants, especially the illegal ones, are more law-abiding than any before), regardless of legal status. There is no reason to treat them as our government does today.