Don't you have to take a test to obtain a licence? Here in the UK the test is relatively difficult and expensive, so not everybody has a licence. Passports are much cheaper, easier to obtain and don't come with age limits, so they are a more universal form of ID (though they are also bulky and hardly something you would carry around on you).
When most people think of driver's licenses, do they really think government certification, or do they think universal ID? I would be honestly interested in the answer.
When I think of driver's licences, I think of driving a car. Universal ID doesn't occur.
Why?
-- You have to take a test to get it, but you do that when you are 16 or 17, and never again. In most states, the test is ridiculously easy.
-- In an average year, you probably use it hundreds of times for its ID value (to buy beer at the grocery store or drinks at a bar, to cash a check, to check in for an airline flight), and (hopefully) zero times for the public safety function (showing it to a police officer after being pulled over).
-- Outside of NYC, the fraction of people over the legal driving age who don't have a license has to be less than 10%
When most people think of driver's licenses, do they really think government certification, or do they think universal ID? I would be honestly interested in the answer.