I'm gonna ask a stupid question about Social Security #s

[Grimey]

Ready?

OK, the format for Social Security #s is xxx-xx-xxxx. Or if you put it into number form, 100,000,000. So the maximum SS#s would be 999,999,999. What happens when they run out of numbers? Currently there are approx 299 million people in the US (according to the Census). And as far as I know, they do not recycle the #s when people die. So when they hit 1 billion people, living or dead, with SS#s, what do they do? Do they just add another digit? Or is that when we get the chips implanted into our skulls?;)

Also, is there someone out there somewhere with the SS# 000-00-0001, or 123-45-6789? Wouldnt that be the suck?

TIA

[colleyvillesooner]

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_315.html


No big deal, I guess, except that the numbers will run out faster than they might have otherwise--that is, as soon as the last block of a million numbers is allocated and the first state begins to run dry.

Happily for us, this is yet another looming crisis we can fob off on our grandchildren.

[frankensooner]

eh, social security will long be defunct by then.

[TUSooner]

Here some inane trivia I came across one morning:

The lowest Social Security number, 001-01-0001, went to Grace D. Owen of Concord, New Hampshire. The 1st 3 digits are a geographic code. The numbers are supposed to start in the northeast and increase as the system moves west. However, due to politics, "001" went to NH instead of Maine, the most northeastern state. The Social Security Board apparently wanted to rig the numbers so that SSB Chairman John G. Winant, a popular 3-time governor of NH, would get the lowest number. Winant turned it down, as did another politician. So the number went to Ms. Owen, who applied for her card on November 24, 1936, and whose card was the 1st typed in Concord.

[Grimey]

thanks for the great answers. I shoulda known to go to the Straight Dope.

And I forgot to consider the fact that SS will be long defunct before anyone has to worry about this anyway.

I guess the same thing could be asked for phone #s. Does anyone have the number (000) 000-0001 ?

[colleyvillesooner]

I guess the same thing could be asked for phone #s. Does anyone have the number (000) 000-0001 ?

Wouldn't you just get an operator after the 1st 0?

[Grimey]

true

[slickdawg]

That's part of W's ploy to "save" social security - don't give messican's
social security numbers, and that "saves" the available ssn's.

[Stanley1]

That's part of W's ploy to "save" social security - don't give messican's
social security numbers, and that "saves" the available ssn's.

Good plan. ;)

[1stTimeCaller]

I was talking to a friend of mine about credit reports and she said on hers it has her having worked at a hotel a few years ago. She's never worked in/at/for a hotel in her life. Was I right in telling her that a maid had probably used her SS# to gain employment? Would my friend get credit for $ paid into the system if an illegal used her SS# and has SS monies taken out of their check for SS?

[Osce0la]

I was talking to a friend of mine about credit reports and she said on hers it has her having worked at a hotel a few years ago. She's never worked in/at/for a hotel in her life. Was I right in telling her that a maid had probably used her SS# to gain employment? Would my friend get credit for $ paid into the system if an illegal used her SS# and has SS monies taken out of their check for SS?
I would assume so...The illegal would work for years, only to benefit your friend's SS.

[jeremy885]

I was talking to a friend of mine about credit reports and she said on hers it has her having worked at a hotel a few years ago. She's never worked in/at/for a hotel in her life. Was I right in telling her that a maid had probably used her SS# to gain employment? Would my friend get credit for $ paid into the system if an illegal used her SS# and has SS monies taken out of their check for SS?


As long as the messican paid the income taxes on it, then she should have a problem. Then again, if she ever needed a security clearance, this could cause one major headache when she has to explain it.