“we had no ID card”
There were ration cards, though. ID cards give immediate ability to control. Without them, they have one less significant tool.
The gov’t can already shut off your credit cards, seize your home, car, property, bank accounts, & children with a simple court order. They can invade your home, shoot your dogs, terrorize your family, & arrest everyone, all on the word of an “informant”; & they don't ask for ID until much later. They can arrest or detain you in public at any time they choose, ID or not.
Refusing a purchase based on an ID card is exactly the same as a refused credit or debit card, & just as immediate. Nothing could be more immediate than a padlock on your home & your car towed away. But not to worry, they wont call you & ask for ID before they do it, because they already know who you are.
I understand your concern, but those powers you don't want the gov’t to have, they already have. Your anonymity in society ended at birth. In a complex, electronic society, it is to your advantage to be able to ID yourself immediately & reliably. It makes life easier - see credit & debit cards, a form of ID.
My wife audits company credit card purchases. For virtually every purchase, she has the date, time, store name, location, & an itemized list of everything purchased. Strip clubs, Victoria's Secret, liquor stores, sex shops. In stunning detail. Bra sizes, car tag numbers, rented x-rated movie titles , taxi trip details. It's all there. And she can shut down those cards immediately with one phone call.
The gov’t has this same capability now thru subpoena & court order. So, our lives are neither private nor anonimous, & are subject now to immediate control, without a national ID. That tells me the National ID is irrelevant to my freedom and privacy.
This may horrify you, but I see personal ID & communications being embedded into the human body in the near future. For the ID, it makes it more secure. One could think the password for a transaction, or think the whole transaction. No need for a cashier. For the communications, it would be instant, private, & super convenient. An Ipad or laptop in your brain, very small of course, but with a screen size limited only by your mind.