It would be trivial for governments to create email addresses for their citizens, and it would be a good idea for general digital enfranchisement.
The problem is that there needs to be laws preventing private companies from requiring this identity, otherwise it would devolve into yet another unique identifier for the surveillance industry to abuse. And in the US context, we don't even have basic privacy laws. So until the abuse of basic identifiers like social security and driver's license numbers gets reigned in, having the government create digital structure just feeds into the surveillance industry.
The problem is that there needs to be laws preventing private companies from requiring this identity, otherwise it would devolve into yet another unique identifier for the surveillance industry to abuse. And in the US context, we don't even have basic privacy laws. So until the abuse of basic identifiers like social security and driver's license numbers gets reigned in, having the government create digital structure just feeds into the surveillance industry.