> Estonia’s approach makes life efficient: taxes take less than an hour to file, and refunds are paid within 48 hours
Yes, sacrificing privacy and liberty can provide conveniences - this is nothing new; we've known it since Huxley's Brave New World, if not earlier.
That doesn't mean these policies are something we want to emulate, such as their stance on sex trafficking[0], free speech[1], and other human rights. Authoritarian policies like 'national identity' initiatives are very strongly correlated with abuses in human and civil rights.
Neither of those links support your assertion that identity schemes are "authoritarian" or "are very strongly correlated with abuses in human and civil rights"
> your assertion that identity schemes are "authoritarian"
Well, no, that assertion is a subjective statement, so it's not possible to cite that. (Hence why I didn't - the footnote appears immediately after the portion of text being cited).
The links are intended to demonstrate that there are a number of other aspects of Estonian society that we might not want to emulate. Cherry-picking one benefit would be misleading.
> or "are very strongly correlated with abuses in human and civil rights"
The original sentence was "Authoritarian policies ... are very strongly correlated with abuses in human and civil rights". Would it be clearer if I replaced the word "policies" with "governments"?
Perhaps I misinterpreted your post, but what I got from it is that you were against identity schemes (attaching the adjective "authoritarian" to them).
Estonia might be an authoritarian hellhole, but I wouldn't say the ID system has anything to do with it. That edit probably would help :)
Yes, sacrificing privacy and liberty can provide conveniences - this is nothing new; we've known it since Huxley's Brave New World, if not earlier.
That doesn't mean these policies are something we want to emulate, such as their stance on sex trafficking[0], free speech[1], and other human rights. Authoritarian policies like 'national identity' initiatives are very strongly correlated with abuses in human and civil rights.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Estonia#Traffi...
[1] Ibid, http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/37287/en/eur...