π€Its hard for an officer to compare a face with a picture sometimes as small as a postage stamp.
Those of us that have traveled to Europe and had our passport and photo verified ahead of time sometimes do not even see a human when going through immigration and customs, fast and easy.
Those that are concerned about their privacy need to realize it makes no difference; they are still being scrutinized and recording your passage into the data base with the same result. The question is do you want to use the Pony Express that takes days to get a message out or email that gets the message out in seconds. Reentering the US takes twice as long and is still subject to human error.
CSPKIS
One link to high interest rates is the US government needs to barrow every year, and investors will not buy in if the interest rates are lower than investment returns elsewhere. If the fed lowers the rate, it cuts down on the US availability of funds to barrow.
Interest rates effects the economy perhaps more than gas prices. On a $300K mortgage, for every 1% of interest rate the borrower pays $3,000 in interest, add in credit cards, auto, home improvement, etc. loans, a good estimate would be $10,000 of after-tax earnings, about 14,000 in gross wages, far more than a household consuming 1000 gal per year and paying $2 per gal above average, $2,000 per year.
Although, fuel cost also effects the cost all goods as well, interest rates staying high is a larger cost to the average American.
Yes, the US debt has to be tackled. Senator Pauls's plan is a little too simple, but perhaps a good start. It would make all department heads think more instead of taking the last year's budget and increasing it by a percentage. It may be more important than gas prices.
CSPKIS