Entitlement and numbers [Re: Banking under Enduring Power of Attorney]

[Adrian Midgley]

Standing in Laura Ashley recently I fell to thinking about the ideas of
a national identity card and Laura Ashley's corporate storecard account
discount system.



It occurred to me that I had never heard the national ID card presented
as offering any service I actually wanted or which anyone I could see
wanted or would benefit from - it was all something we were to do for
someone else's benefit.


And yet, if we have a good token of identity, why should not Laura
Ashley instead of issuing a card which one's spouse could leave along
with a collection of other cards and tokens of entitlement at home,
instead make a note that the holder if ID card number 1 million and 97
was a member of their sheme and points should accrue and bills be sent
etc etc.

And so on ...

Thus given an effective national ID card, one should be able to walk out
of the house wearing and carrying essentially nothing, except for the ID
card, enter a series of shops in which one had an account and
demonstrating identity by this one car acquire layers of clothing, lunch
and a ticket home and find prices diminished by some tiny fraction due
to the reduction in costs to the sellers.



But it doesn't seem to have been sold on that basis.  If indeed it has
been sold.



(Laura Ashley alas are not into selling, but instead have rules about
single copies of dresses on display dummies, but that is another story,
and my wife may well have another dress from somewhere else)

-- 
A