Off the Radar

[Marmora Man]

Is it possible, these days, to live "off the radar". By which I mean to disappear from all bureaucratic databases, work for and in cash only, never have to produce ID and so on?

The new Tom Cruise film has Jack Reacher as a such an individual wandering around USA - doing good and beating up baddies, getting by on the odd labouring job, not owning a house, car or even clothes (he just buys new every few days and discards the old).

There were the couple up in Teeside where the husband "disappeared" in a canoeing accident and then surfaced in Panama, John Stonehouse tried to fake a suicide but was found in Australia.

So ................ what do you think?

[Salsaboy]

I'm sure it can be done if you are young enough, but once you've lived a bit there a all sorts of paper and electronic trails you leave behind.

Unless of course you emigrate to a country with a lesser degree of record keeping, somewhere in SE asia maybe, that you can get to by boat so nobody knows you've arrived.

[TheArtfulDogger]

Yes

But I would have to kill you once I tell you how !

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Love the Reacher books - couldn't imagine anyone less like Tom Cruise playing the part.

I'm a sucker for Sainsbury's points, I don't think I'd be able to disappear.

[Marmora Man]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Love the Reacher books - couldn't imagine anyone

> less like Tom Cruise playing the part.

Yes - Jack Reacher 6'6" with fists like hams and weighing at in 220lb. Tom Cruise - 5'3" (with cuban heels), fists like fairy cakes and weighing in at about 140lb. Should be an interesting movie - will everyone have to stand in a hole when addressing the High Wookiness Titan III that is Tom Cruise?

[civilservant]

There's never any suggestion that Reacher has disappeared from bureaucratic databases - all too often his old army buddies (and enemies) know where to find him. And he calls on his old army records when he needs to prove his bona fides.

But he has a tiny carbon footprint. Plus he's an avowed feminist. A very appealing update of the ronin/Man with no Name archetype.

I hope he finds whoever cast Tom Cruise in the role and terminates them with extreme prejudice!

[Townleygreen]

Also, in the more recent books he carries some sort of identification, of necessity in today's society which is quite telling in itself...

[BrandNewGuy]

There was a story a few years ago about an old Irishman in NW London who'd come over here as a very young man with no paperwork and worked every day of his life for cash in hand and never been to the doctor or to hospital. When it came to retirement, there was no bureaucratic trace of him at all and he received no pension or any other benefits. I think the authorities subsequently relented.

[woodrot]

It is possible, but takes alot of planning and usually significant money. It is possible to start again with a new passport and ID from an iffy african nation. There a probabaly hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who leave no footprint during their time here - sadly, these are mostly illegals working in in near slavery or involved in criminal activities/ ventures.

[uncleglen]

It seems iffy African nations are also able to create hundreds of false ids in order to defraud the benefit system if recent news is to be believed.

[civilservant]

so the moral is - yes, you can.

But only if you are an old Irishman or an illegal immigrant

Is that it?

[Salsaboy]

I've noticed Quids disappears for days at a time.......

[civilservant]

... so which one is he?