As for "lifetime licenses", I much prefer the "lifetime examination element credit" proposal made by Anchorage VEC. Lifetime licenses don't make sense, but lifetime credit does.
I'm OK with granting lifetime credit in principle. However, as a VE, I'm concerned about granting lifetime credit to people who took exams years ago. The last thing I want to do is have to figure out whether the Joe Smith who wants to renew his long-expired license is the same Joe Smith who appears on the Xeroxed Callbook page that's being presented as proof of a previous license. (It's iffy enough that we have to do this for element 3 grandfathering.)
If the FCC wants to take matters out of the hands of VEs and do the vetting itself (fat chance), that'd be fine. Or if exam credit is limited to expired licenses that appear in the FCC database, that'd be fine, too. Or maybe it'd be OK if the renewal applicant had to present the original license.
In short, if lifetime exam credit is to be a reality, we have to make sure that it's implemented in a way that doesn't create headaches or bogus hams.
