you got away with it for the same reason I got away with the petty things I was doing when I was an addict; the volume is simply too much for them to do anything with it all, except for looking at it in hindsight. For now.
The only way to ensure that our government won't use our information to "help us" is by stopping them from getting it in the first place. The volume of crime is so large that unless you do something very bad, or very often, unless you are caught in the act you usually get away with it.
I think our government has has given more than enough examples of it's willingness to be intrusive over the past century and beyond.
And yeah, to me there is a large difference than me voluntarily going to a doctor after voluntarily signing up for insurance and the two entities sharing my information as needed and with no one else, and the alternative whereby the government requires me to carry insurance.
I would make a bet with you that within 20 years many of the things listed will have come true, and either you or I has to get a tattoo of the others choice. Bet is pointless as there is no way for the winner to enforce it, but its coming.
The ChiComs had a saying; to control the population you need to keep them hungry and dumb. Over the past decade, this country has gotten a whole lot hungrier, and dumber.
