Decades ago we used to have so many cards and numbers - one for tax, another social security, a driver's license, a national health user id, an electoral ID card that granted access to the voting... things (stands?), all besides a citizenship ID card that gets create basically when you're born (and uodated/renewed every X years).

Nowadays, while all of these numbers still exist (mostly for compatibility reasons, I suspect) they're all bundled together into a unified ID card. Well except the drivers license, that one isn't a privilege you're born with.

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 days ago

It is generally the state’s responsibility to maintain and issue identification cards and liscenses. The only overarching American identification is your passport and Social Security number, both of which are technically voluntary. The Real ID act you might have heard about in the news recently is supposed to more closely unify the various liscenses into a similar format for air travel and voting compliance, but many still do not have this new form of ID.

America created the Social Security number and kind of gave up.