Re:Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18
by justsomeadvice0 on Friday December 09, 2022 @01:12PM
(#33924531)
That's prohibitively expensive for an ID, even for most Americans. Any required government IDs should be nearly if not completely subsidized.
Requiring IDs in the USA has historically been used as a form of voter suppression. Texas is one of the worst states WRT voter suppression [1]; anecdotally in the 2020 election (during COVID) Houston, TX (3rd largest city in America) had exactly 1 ballot dropbox [2].
1. https://www.aclutx.org/en/news/5-ways-texas-suppresses-vote-...
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/10/13/trump-j...
Re:Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18
by DavidPeiffer on Friday December 09, 2022 @01:12PM
(#33924535)
$130 probably isn't much to the majority of people on this forum, but $130 can buy multiple weeks of groceries for 2 people at low cost retailers. That is absolutely a lot of money to the significant percent of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck.
Even if you're not living paycheck to paycheck, $130 could be a decent chunk of what you're able to save annually. When money and expenses aren't consistent, it's be tough to prioritize a passport with no intention of traveling internationally.
Re:Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18
by nsxwolf on Friday December 09, 2022 @01:02PM
(#33924421)
That's expensive to most regular people.
Re:Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18
by Dalewyn on Friday December 09, 2022 @01:10PM
(#33924511)
Most people buy thousand dollar smartphones, among other luxuries.
$130 dollars for federally-issued identification that is valid for 10 years is not expensive.
Re:Bill to ban social media for Texans under 18
by cnelsenmilt on Friday December 09, 2022 @02:02PM
(#33925179)
Is $130 plus whatever a state ID costs a reasonable fee to pay (to the government) to access Facebook?
EDIT: I looked up the fees, it is $130 USD for a passport book, both for first-time issuance (plus separate fee of $35) and renewals. Most passports are valid for 10 years. That is not expensive, and practically free.
Source: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/passports/forms-fees/Pa...