V
There are few companies in business today that do mass production intaglio printing, a process that makes it difficult to counterfeit a document. Those that do are finding it increasingly expensive, time consuming, and archaic. Unfortunately, it is just about the only process that is nearly foolproof.
Now, this might not sound like an Earth-shattering news story, but the consequences of hard-to-acquire official birth, marriage, and death documents could pose widespread difficulties. Schools must have an authorized copy of a child's birth certificate for admission and enrollment. Young marrieds, when acquiring credit cards, car loans, and mortgages, must prove they are actually married. Families need as many as ten copies of death certificates when filing probate cases.
California, for example, has limited families to five documents. Not enough to register Granddad's will.
The larger concern is that as electronic documents become more commonplace, the need for paper suppliers, ink manufacturers, file management firms, and the like grows less all the time. Electronic records are convenient, easily stored, and cheap to produce. But cheap to reproduce in hardcopy form?
Aye, there's the rub. If these companies continue to go out of business, we are then at the mercy of the computer hackers and to possible government manipulation. We won't be able to prove who we are, that we're married, or even that we're dead.
Now, this might not sound like an Earth-shattering news story, but the consequences of hard-to-acquire official birth, marriage, and death documents could pose widespread difficulties. Schools must have an authorized copy of a child's birth certificate for admission and enrollment. Young marrieds, when acquiring credit cards, car loans, and mortgages, must prove they are actually married. Families need as many as ten copies of death certificates when filing probate cases.
California, for example, has limited families to five documents. Not enough to register Granddad's will.
The larger concern is that as electronic documents become more commonplace, the need for paper suppliers, ink manufacturers, file management firms, and the like grows less all the time. Electronic records are convenient, easily stored, and cheap to produce. But cheap to reproduce in hardcopy form?
Aye, there's the rub. If these companies continue to go out of business, we are then at the mercy of the computer hackers and to possible government manipulation. We won't be able to prove who we are, that we're married, or even that we're dead.