Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know
Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
Speaker 1: A K A to eight six five four seven five
Speaker 1: two three D. You can't get out you're so so
Speaker 1: security number. I thought about that. I thought about what
Speaker 1: if I like ended up when we were describing like
Speaker 1: what the different numbers and were, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: my why happened to be this one? If you listen
Speaker 1: to the whole podcast, you can put together and so
Speaker 1: security number. That's like, don't do that, Josh, don't. We
Speaker 1: should probably beef out what I said anyway, because that
Speaker 1: might be someone else's Social Security number. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be responsible for that. Okay, we'll
Speaker 1: go back and beat that out. That's really some c
Speaker 1: o A right there. Why how do you know that
Speaker 1: that person had been like, yes, you know, its called
Speaker 1: me out Serial number one. I want a contest. I
Speaker 1: can pay for my own hotel in Atlanta to go
Speaker 1: see the guys, but just me so um, Jerry like that? Uh, so,
Speaker 1: chuck ah, do you know much about social security? A bit?
Speaker 1: You're about to chuck um. The Social Security Act is
Speaker 1: created by our old timey forbears. Um basically created a scheme,
Speaker 1: and not scheme in the way of like a carbon
Speaker 1: trating scheme or something like that. I know you don't
Speaker 1: like that word, but it's a legitimate word. It doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily mean something nefarious. But under this scheme, social security
Speaker 1: um is given to retiring workers in the in the
Speaker 1: form of a monthly payment, where basically it says, hey,
Speaker 1: good job, you did a good job working. Go take
Speaker 1: care of yourself. We don't want you to die on
Speaker 1: the street. This should hopefully sustain you in your retirement years. Right.
Speaker 1: This is before the advent of four oh one case
Speaker 1: and the like this, this thirty five bucks a month. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: the whole, the whole basis of it is that the
Speaker 1: workers of today pay into the Social Security fund and
Speaker 1: it is immediately taken and distributed dispersed two workers who
Speaker 1: have retired today. Yeah, so the workers of today are
Speaker 1: taking care of the workers of yesterday. That's the whole
Speaker 1: point to what This has led some people to claim
Speaker 1: that the Social Security program is nothing more than a
Speaker 1: Ponzi scheme where you're taking the money of these people
Speaker 1: to pay off other people for socialism. Even Oh, it's total,
Speaker 1: totally different. It is socialism. Yeah, but people cry socialism
Speaker 1: a lot these days, and they don't think about things
Speaker 1: like social security in all the different ways we do
Speaker 1: have socialism that people are like, oh, that's fine, right, sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: but well but you can make a case that it
Speaker 1: is a Ponzi scheme. But Stephen Goss, chief actuary for
Speaker 1: the Social Security Administration, would take issue with that. I'm
Speaker 1: sure he would. He would say it's not a Ponzi
Speaker 1: scheme because the Ponzi scheme is not sustainable. Some might
Speaker 1: argue that social security is not sustainable, and that is,
Speaker 1: as we say here in the South, that's a whole
Speaker 1: another show. Okay, well I want to talk about it anymore. Well,
Speaker 1: what do you have some numbers on its sustainability? Well,
Speaker 1: we can chat about it. Here's the thing. So if
Speaker 1: you if you just if you had zero population growth,
Speaker 1: this thing would work forever, right, and it would work
Speaker 1: completely efficiently with no changes whatsoever. Unfortunately, we don't have
Speaker 1: zero population growth, and we actually had a spike in
Speaker 1: population that we know of as the baby boom, right,
Speaker 1: which means that very shortly and starting now, I think
Speaker 1: um more, there will be way more retired workers than
Speaker 1: there are workers, Which means that the workers of today
Speaker 1: are going to have a far greater burden placed on
Speaker 1: them taking care of these retired workers than any other
Speaker 1: workers ever have our will. But Stephen goss chief Actuary
Speaker 1: for the Social Security Administration, says this will eventually work
Speaker 1: itself out. The government has taken steps to address this.
Speaker 1: And what is done is raise the amount of money
Speaker 1: that people throw into this, and they're taking the extra
Speaker 1: money and the government is buying treasury bonds investing in itself. Now,
Speaker 1: here's the weird thing. When they come mature these bonds,
Speaker 1: the government pays these things off with other tax money.
Speaker 1: So the government is going to pay the Social Security
Speaker 1: Fund back with other tax money. Now, this will drive
Speaker 1: people crazy, conservatives, libertarians, umbers right leaning liberals, right fiscally
Speaker 1: conservative liberals especially, But Stephen Gossa shares it's just a
Speaker 1: little bump. We're probably not gonna have another population spike
Speaker 1: for a while, and so security will go right back
Speaker 1: to normal. It just yes for us right now, Right,
Speaker 1: the other thing that I never really thought about is
Speaker 1: it could not have been a sustainable program even to
Speaker 1: begin with, because you start Social Security and when when
Speaker 1: was it people started getting paying It paid out, you know,
Speaker 1: a year later, two years later, and so they weren't
Speaker 1: paying in that long. So immediately you've got a problem
Speaker 1: on your hands because people are starting to get payouts
Speaker 1: that didn't pay in for twenty years. Yes, that is
Speaker 1: the case, but the payoffs were smaller at first. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it still creates a bit of a wrinkle. I
Speaker 1: think that would a wrinkle in time for the future.
Speaker 1: I think so. But it was a hump that had
Speaker 1: to be gotten over, and it was gotten over. Like basically,
Speaker 1: the first people just got screwed. Yeah. Well, well but
Speaker 1: they didn't pay in that much either though, So no,
Speaker 1: and that's true, So they were rightly screwed. Okay, so
Speaker 1: let's talk about the history of all this chuck. And
Speaker 1: and by the way, I guess the takeaway from that
Speaker 1: intro Social Security is considered a what upon CI scheme.
Speaker 1: I think people are just sitting there like, I know,
Speaker 1: all right, well you already you already blew the big
Speaker 1: secret there the act of um it was coined. The
Speaker 1: name social Security was coined by Abraham Epstein Um, who
Speaker 1: led the American Association for Social Security. And they began
Speaker 1: paying out in thirty seven, Like you said, yeah, just
Speaker 1: just for workers. Right. It was the the the biggest
Speaker 1: wage earner of a household, basically the dad um got
Speaker 1: the money as the retiree. Yeah, and it was a
Speaker 1: lump sum, right. They didn't pay it in monthly uh buckets.
Speaker 1: Back then, tell him what the first guy who got
Speaker 1: social Security got his slump sum? Yeah, his lumpsom was
Speaker 1: uh was it seventeen cents in January nine, thirty seven.
Speaker 1: He was the first guy that gets Social Security benefits
Speaker 1: And I looked it up. That's two dollars and fifty
Speaker 1: five cents in two thousand ten money. Oh well, so
Speaker 1: even back then he was just like, hey, federal government
Speaker 1: gets that in my pocket for you. Yeah. Um, Josh
Speaker 1: just made an obscene gesture. We should just say that. Um.
Speaker 1: In nine, just two years later, they added survivors benefits
Speaker 1: and benefits two spouses and children. Uh flashboard of fifty six,
Speaker 1: they had a disability of benefits. Sixty five, Medicare was
Speaker 1: signed into law, and in sixty one the I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: In sixty two, the Civil Service Commission in the I
Speaker 1: r S adopted the Social Security number as your official
Speaker 1: federal I D number and taxpayer I D number, respectively,
Speaker 1: which is a kind of a thing because the first
Speaker 1: Social Security cards cifically said on them not to be
Speaker 1: used as identification. Yeah, but they never made a follow
Speaker 1: up law to enforce it, and so everybody's like, no,
Speaker 1: this is perfect for identification. Yeah, I always, I'll always
Speaker 1: remember it because of this card in my wallet. We'll
Speaker 1: use the mark of the beast is identification. Um, the
Speaker 1: first numbers, because this is not just about Social Security
Speaker 1: but more about the numbers, which is more interesting than
Speaker 1: I thought. Slightly. Yeah, um, it was. They were distributed
Speaker 1: to the post office because they didn't have field offices yet.
Speaker 1: So ye, post offices took the initial task. Two. Uh
Speaker 1: type up. These cards are called typing centers. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: basically this is, um, this is what I This is
Speaker 1: the part I entitled bureaucracy. How right. Yeah. The Social
Speaker 1: Security Um Administration contacted all employers in the United States
Speaker 1: and said, hey, uh, this is a form SS four
Speaker 1: and on it you just list the number of employees
Speaker 1: you have working for you. Mail it back to us.
Speaker 1: And so all the employers filled out I have fifteen employees,
Speaker 1: and then mailed the S S four back to the
Speaker 1: Social Security Administration. So Security Administration opened up the S
Speaker 1: S fours and they said, okay, this employer has fifteen employees,
Speaker 1: so we're going to mail him fifteen S S five forms,
Speaker 1: which are basically signing up for your Social Security number. Right.
Speaker 1: So they mailed the fifteen back, probably in one package,
Speaker 1: to the employer, and the employer distributed them among his employees.
Speaker 1: Employees filled out the S S five forms and they
Speaker 1: sent them back to the Such Security Administration. Such Security
Speaker 1: Administration said, okay, now we have these and we're going
Speaker 1: to assign social security numbers. Right the um they said, hey,
Speaker 1: go to your post office. The post office gave them
Speaker 1: the social security numbers. The post office then sent that
Speaker 1: duplicate form to the Social Security Administration, who created the
Speaker 1: master file of all of these documents put together, which
Speaker 1: was your so Security number file, and that was sent
Speaker 1: to Maryland. Yes, and then in Maryland is where it
Speaker 1: all came together. That's right. Uh, well what came together there?
Speaker 1: The numbers, the numbering, the whole thing, your whole file,
Speaker 1: the block the block file. That's right. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about the first numbers. Since we're there. Who has it?
Speaker 1: And is it zero zero one zero one zero zero
Speaker 1: zero one? Is it the first number? No? Well we
Speaker 1: should first say that no one knows for sure who
Speaker 1: got the very first card in the very first number,
Speaker 1: because they they reckon about several hundred thousand people applied
Speaker 1: in that first November of ninety six. So I didn't
Speaker 1: do the math, but there's some I'm sure you could
Speaker 1: figure out statistically, and I'd be interested to hear how
Speaker 1: to do this. But um, if a hundred thousand people
Speaker 1: all got their card that day and the post offices
Speaker 1: were open from like eight to five, how many people
Speaker 1: or handed their Social Security number card um simultaneously that day?
Speaker 1: How many first people were there? There's got to be
Speaker 1: some awesome math equation to figure that out. Somebody should
Speaker 1: do that for us. Since the UM so they don't
Speaker 1: know officially who it was, but their first official record, uh,
Speaker 1: they do know. UM it was a guy named John
Speaker 1: David Sweeney Jr. And he had the social Security number
Speaker 1: oh five five O nine O one and by oh
Speaker 1: I mean zero of course or aught and he got
Speaker 1: his because the head of the Social Security Administration took
Speaker 1: it off the top of the stack, yeah, and said
Speaker 1: this is the first one. That's right, So there you go.
Speaker 1: But they did offer that to um oh no, sorry,
Speaker 1: zero zero one number, the lowest number right on record.
Speaker 1: Right before we get to there, though, John David Sweeney
Speaker 1: ironically died before he could collect his uh social Security payments.
Speaker 1: John David Tweeney is the one with the first security number.
Speaker 1: So that is very ironic. That's the fact of the
Speaker 1: podcast if you ask me. Yeah, because retirement age was
Speaker 1: sixty five and he died at sixty one. Today they
Speaker 1: handle it differently. It's a little confusing, but actually it's
Speaker 1: not that confusing. You just have to be good at math.
Speaker 1: Benefits are reduced by five nights of one per cent
Speaker 1: for every month you retire before the age of sixty
Speaker 1: five or rich person. Yeah, it's good for you. So um,
Speaker 1: so back to the number one oh one or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the all time low number holder, who always will be
Speaker 1: until we start recycling numbers if we ever need to,
Speaker 1: We we may, we may. Her name is um Grace
Speaker 1: d Owen. She is of Concord, New Hampshire, or conquered
Speaker 1: okay um and uh yeah, because we always get mail
Speaker 1: from people it's like, oh, you pronounced it Nevada, it's Nevada.
Speaker 1: Or if we say Vada, they say, hey, you pronounced
Speaker 1: Nevada incorrectly. It's Nevada. No, it is Nevada. But I
Speaker 1: tell everyone that writes in from Nevada, only people from
Speaker 1: Nevada say Nevada. Everyone else says Nevada, especially people in Missouri.
Speaker 1: So um, Chuck Gracedo and of Conquord, New Hampshire got
Speaker 1: the lowest number zero zero one zero one zero zero
Speaker 1: zero one number. It was UM. And she got that
Speaker 1: not because she was first in line, as we've said,
Speaker 1: different guy got that low number. Uh, or a different
Speaker 1: guy got the first number and it wasn't low. Um.
Speaker 1: She got it because of where she lived. Originally, the
Speaker 1: number scheming was based on well, the first two numbers
Speaker 1: were based on the state you lived in, um and
Speaker 1: starting northeast, moving westward, and so you had less than
Speaker 1: fifty possible primary numbers, the first two first through renas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well not even they didn't even have fifty at the time,
Speaker 1: did they know? That's what I'm saying. So this is
Speaker 1: a total waste of digits. They figured out very quickly,
Speaker 1: so they started assigning them to zip codes instead. And
Speaker 1: we should talk about these numbers. Do you want here?
Speaker 1: Are we there now? Well, we are almost there. But
Speaker 1: um you didn't mention that Grace Owen got that number.
Speaker 1: They actually offered it as an honor to um John
Speaker 1: g Winnt these Social Security Board chairman, and John Campbell,
Speaker 1: the Federal Bureau of Old Age Benefits rep for the
Speaker 1: Boston They offered them both the number oh one oh
Speaker 1: one oh one and they no, no thanks. We are
Speaker 1: true bureaucrats and that would be against the bureaucracy's rules.
Speaker 1: That's right. And seventeen cents to Ernest Ackerman, the first
Speaker 1: guy to get a payment. Yes, but um iidem A
Speaker 1: Fuller made out like a bandit. This is exactly the problem.
Speaker 1: This is not the problem. Mrs Fuller did good things
Speaker 1: with her money. She brought herself in edzel Um, she
Speaker 1: uh invested in um uh web band. She did great things.
Speaker 1: She did um so id to a. Fuller retired in
Speaker 1: November nineteen thirty nine, and she was the first person
Speaker 1: to start collecting monthly benefits. So by the time she
Speaker 1: by the time social Security payments or by the time
Speaker 1: you had to start paying and because another fact is
Speaker 1: that you can't opt out UM and the time she retired,
Speaker 1: she contributed a total of twenty four dollars and seventy
Speaker 1: five cents because of the Social Security scheme. UM. By
Speaker 1: the time she died at age one hundred, nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: she collected a total of twenty two thousand, eight hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty eight dollars and nine two cents. She made
Speaker 1: out she wore like a bandanna around her face like
Speaker 1: the rest of her life she did. Yeah, she was
Speaker 1: a Social Security bandit. Okay, back to the numbers. Enough history,
Speaker 1: I think so. Um So, the first three numbers they're
Speaker 1: called what the area numbers, and like you said, they
Speaker 1: were originally from northeast to west. So like if you
Speaker 1: were if you lived in New Hampshire, um, you your
Speaker 1: first three numbers were gonna be zero, zero one. Then
Speaker 1: they figured out that, well that's stupid, like we're gonna
Speaker 1: have fifty states tops, so there's a whole number that
Speaker 1: we're not using. Eventually we're gonna need it. Because social
Speaker 1: Security numbers aren't recycled, they're retired after the person dies, right,
Speaker 1: that is true. So then they started assigning them to
Speaker 1: zip code, so that started using up a lot more numbers, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: zip code on the mailing address on the application form,
Speaker 1: which didn't necessarily indicate your residents. It's just wherever the
Speaker 1: mailing address was where you applied, right, exactly when you
Speaker 1: were living. Uh right, And it doesn't, Yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Mailing in residents is not the same address most times
Speaker 1: it is, but even still, like the place where I
Speaker 1: was born, it's not where I live now, so right,
Speaker 1: So I mean you have a lot of um weird
Speaker 1: numbers for the beginning in the early seventies, since seventy
Speaker 1: two is when they started the zip code. So I
Speaker 1: believe that I actually am one of the last years
Speaker 1: since I was born in seventy one, last people to
Speaker 1: get uh the one based on the state. Cool, so
Speaker 1: I'm old timing, seriously, that is something. Um. The next
Speaker 1: two numbers are group numbers, so you have your area
Speaker 1: number and then the area numbers broken into groups zero
Speaker 1: one through Yeah, and this makes sense. So the two
Speaker 1: numbers in the middle are the you are that group
Speaker 1: of that zip code or that state, depending on how
Speaker 1: old you are. It was just a means to break
Speaker 1: it up and make it simpler for accounting and filing
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. Right, because instead of UM just
Speaker 1: one group from an area, or what nine ninety nine
Speaker 1: possible areas, you now have nine groups of nine ninety
Speaker 1: nine possible areas, nine nine groups each to allow us
Speaker 1: for a lot more. Because the the eight ball that
Speaker 1: the Social Security number UM is always behind is basically
Speaker 1: running out of numbers. I don't think it will happen.
Speaker 1: It will there well, eventually, but there's what they says,
Speaker 1: a billion combinations. But consider this, there's been more than
Speaker 1: four hundred million numbers issued since so what sixty five
Speaker 1: seventy seven years? Right, I have a feeling that does
Speaker 1: take into account the baby boom that ate up a
Speaker 1: lot of numbers, But I mean I have a feeling
Speaker 1: that we could we could reach that and what another
Speaker 1: hundred hundred years, the US will be around I'm sure
Speaker 1: longer than then, hopefully. Yeah, China is rising, well, it'll
Speaker 1: be at the very least not in our lifetime. Oh no,
Speaker 1: so who cares. I would have agreed with you had
Speaker 1: you qualified it like that. Yeah, what they'll probably do
Speaker 1: is UM and I'm guessing here, but they'll probably start
Speaker 1: reassigning numbers from dead people, which will be weird. I
Speaker 1: use so security number. Yeah, imagine they go back. I mean,
Speaker 1: it would make sense to me that they would start
Speaker 1: from the beginning again almost so like you're using someone's
Speaker 1: number from and the year. Yeah, you got a stinky
Speaker 1: old mothball number. It's like a wicker um wicker wheelchair
Speaker 1: or something like that, like leather leg breaks is something weird,
Speaker 1: like from the thirties. What are you talking about? You
Speaker 1: know exactly what I'm talking about. Okay, the last four
Speaker 1: digits are the serial numbers, and uh they number consecutively
Speaker 1: from triple O one through So that's just saying, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna extend the number the possible numbers we can
Speaker 1: come up with exactly. You've the more billion, and you
Speaker 1: know what, you don't even necessarily have to recycle even
Speaker 1: if you add like an extra attempt digit. How much
Speaker 1: would that change everything? I mean, they have to rewrite
Speaker 1: all their programming and all their accountings, and then we
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to recycle numbers. Good point they have. Luckily,
Speaker 1: they have people much smarter than that's deciding how to
Speaker 1: handle that. I don't know. We're pretty sharp, all right, Josh,
Speaker 1: common questions, These are actually pretty good. Okay, Chuck, here's
Speaker 1: a question for you. Does everyone have to have a
Speaker 1: Social Security number? If you're over eighteen, then yes, you do. UM.
Speaker 1: And you if you receive an income and you're over eighteen, UM.
Speaker 1: If you're interested in starting up a bank account, being
Speaker 1: a deduction on your parents, income taxes, all sorts of
Speaker 1: things like that, metal getting medical coverage, taking advantage of
Speaker 1: government services, then you're gonna need that. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people who just you that that you have
Speaker 1: to have that. Practically speaking, you do, like any bank
Speaker 1: can be like I'm not doing business with you, and
Speaker 1: then you say, okay, well I can't force you to
Speaker 1: by law, but I'll try your competitor, and you go
Speaker 1: on down the line and maybe you find a bank.
Speaker 1: From what I understand, there's banks that are set up
Speaker 1: in the Midwest, um for people who don't have Social
Speaker 1: Security numbers, Like who've said I'm not gonna have one,
Speaker 1: I don't trust the government, don't want to have a
Speaker 1: serial number, and I'm not going to have this no,
Speaker 1: but they're still paying in Oh yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: they're still paying in but they don't have a Social
Speaker 1: Security number, so that means they're not gonna get benefits
Speaker 1: at the end. I don't think they think they're going
Speaker 1: to get benefits anyway. I could get that, UM. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't have a Social Security number. I think there
Speaker 1: are there are people who don't pay Social Security as well.
Speaker 1: It's like a whole Yeah, there's that's like a whole
Speaker 1: topic along the fringe of whether or not you need
Speaker 1: to have one, whether or not you actually do have
Speaker 1: to pay in the constitution, a reality of it, all
Speaker 1: that stuff, but for all practical purposes, your life is
Speaker 1: exponentially easier if you have a so Security number. Right,
Speaker 1: And you also said you have to pay because you
Speaker 1: can't tell the government, you know what, I'm setting up
Speaker 1: for my own retirement and I want to take all
Speaker 1: the available money that I make to do that because
Speaker 1: my retirement plan is much better than whatever you yokels
Speaker 1: are working on. Yeah, because I mean, if you you
Speaker 1: have to pay in fifteen point three percent, I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's current. I haven't looked, but as of
Speaker 1: the writing of this UM, this article, it was fifteen
Speaker 1: point three seven point six paid by you out of
Speaker 1: your gross pay and seven point six five paid by
Speaker 1: your employer. It is staggering how much we pay in
Speaker 1: taxes in this country. So if you took fifteen point
Speaker 1: three percent of your gross pay and put it into
Speaker 1: a four oh one k over the same course of years,
Speaker 1: you would have so much more money. Yeah, barring another
Speaker 1: stock market catask t fee before you could get your
Speaker 1: money out of your formal one k um, you would
Speaker 1: have way more than you have from the Social Security
Speaker 1: Administration As as benefits. You know, what I'm meant to
Speaker 1: look up is if the government uses this money for
Speaker 1: other things in the meantime or is it strictly like here,
Speaker 1: it's in this little pool and all we're doing is
Speaker 1: paying people out with it. Well, supposedly, before the baby
Speaker 1: boom problem arose, it was going in and right back out,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure any surplus was invested in treasury bonds.
Speaker 1: Now um, all of the surplus is invested in treasury bonds,
Speaker 1: which is just such a shell game. It's so crazy,
Speaker 1: and no one has any idea if this is gonna work.
Speaker 1: I swear to God, I'm not paranoid, but don't live
Speaker 1: in the Midwest. I'm not a fringe dweller. This is
Speaker 1: not something I like keep up with a lot um.
Speaker 1: I don't read World net daily. There's nothing like that
Speaker 1: in my life. But I'm telling you this is like
Speaker 1: there there's no guarantee that this social secure a UM
Speaker 1: I guess bandage for the baby boom populations, like if
Speaker 1: it's gonna work, it's it's really at the very least,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Yeah. And the troubling, I would say, at
Speaker 1: the very least say, uh, they let you. They make
Speaker 1: it real easy for you to slap a number on
Speaker 1: your little brand new baby. Yes, do you have to
Speaker 1: have a number for your child? Well, like I said,
Speaker 1: if you want them to get medical coverage and UM
Speaker 1: open up a savings account in their name for like
Speaker 1: their future college or trade school or travels around the world,
Speaker 1: or you want to claim it as a deduction on
Speaker 1: your tax filing, Yeah, then they they're gonna need one,
Speaker 1: and they make it pretty easy on you to get
Speaker 1: one for your new, little, uh smelly baby. They do again. UM,
Speaker 1: I'm not a fringe dweller, but they have a very
Speaker 1: sinister sounding Enumeration at birth program that's pretty bad. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was started in UM and basically, it just made
Speaker 1: it very easy for you to get a source of
Speaker 1: security number for your infant as part of their birth
Speaker 1: record forms enumeration at birth. You know, I used to
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned this before. I used to carry
Speaker 1: my card around in my wallet when I was a
Speaker 1: teenager because I thought it was I don't know, I
Speaker 1: thought it made me, uh legitimate or adult, like it's
Speaker 1: interesting everyone else's everyone else is out drinking, and I
Speaker 1: was like, no, no, I got my self a security card.
Speaker 1: It keeps keeps the urges away. Hey, speaking of Social
Speaker 1: Security cards and wallets, do you want to talk about that, lady? Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't. Yeah. This in uh nineteen thirty seven, dude
Speaker 1: named Douglas Patterson had a wallet company. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: the vice president and treasurer of this wallet company, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know what we should do. We should
Speaker 1: include a fake Social Security card and every wallet, but
Speaker 1: we'll make it look really, really realistic by copying yours secretary. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He basically assigned these little fake cards, like you know,
Speaker 1: you get a picture frame with a fake picture in it.
Speaker 1: They gave out wallet or they sold wallets with a
Speaker 1: fake SOL Security card with a real number. I don't
Speaker 1: know why he thought that was a good idea or
Speaker 1: why she went along with it. What was her name,
Speaker 1: Hilda Straighter Whitcher? She went along with this? Maybe she
Speaker 1: didn't know, No, she knew she did. Yeah, um, and uh,
Speaker 1: I guess she didn't feel like she could assert herself
Speaker 1: at the time. But um, what over forty years something
Speaker 1: like forty thou people used her social Security number? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they gave her new and yeah, and people are still
Speaker 1: using it as as recently his nineteen seventies seven, there
Speaker 1: were twelve people using that as their own because of
Speaker 1: this wallet. Yeah. In in defense of the dude, he
Speaker 1: did have the word uh, spitchammen on the bottom of it,
Speaker 1: Spaceman specimen. But it was, you know, in small print,
Speaker 1: and it looked like the real deal. It had the
Speaker 1: little emblem that. Um who was the guy who designed that? Uh?
Speaker 1: Fred Happele That's right? And what else did he design?
Speaker 1: The flying Tiger's logo? Yeah? Which what was that? Like
Speaker 1: a B two bomber logo? Well, who knows? World War two?
Speaker 1: I guess, uh, some sort of gunner plane or something. Okay,
Speaker 1: that'd be my guess. The fighting hell cats. Yeah, finding
Speaker 1: health fish, healthfish the health fish with the Simpsons. Okay, um, Josh,
Speaker 1: can you get a new number? Yes, but only in
Speaker 1: very extreme cases like stalking, like talking, or fraud, a
Speaker 1: bad case of fraud. I guess yeah. I would imagine
Speaker 1: that the FBI can probably get you one if you're
Speaker 1: part of the Witness Protection program. Oh sure, which we've
Speaker 1: talked about. Yeah, you don't have to pay for that.
Speaker 1: There's no fee from the s s A. But um
Speaker 1: you uh what what you should be wary of his
Speaker 1: companies that claim that they can get you a new
Speaker 1: number to absolve your credit, Like, hey, have you let
Speaker 1: an awful bad life become a new person, We'll get
Speaker 1: you a new Social Security number, which is hilarious if
Speaker 1: you think that that's that's crazy. Following for that, it's
Speaker 1: like buying an elevator pass in high school as a
Speaker 1: freshman or something like, Yeah, except way you worse when
Speaker 1: you have a single floor high school, because I'm sure
Speaker 1: they're like, not only do we charge you a feed,
Speaker 1: but give us your so Security number because we have
Speaker 1: to go in and like make sure that it's wiped out.
Speaker 1: Right where are we here? Uh? You know? The title
Speaker 1: of the section was why does it matter? If someone
Speaker 1: knows my Social Security number, I think it's pretty obvious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: identity theft it's a big problem these days. Back in
Speaker 1: the old days it wasn't as much. It's actually gone
Speaker 1: down since this article, what four thousand years what they
Speaker 1: said here, right SEV. Now, well that's the ones that
Speaker 1: the FTC gets reports of, which are probably the lion
Speaker 1: share of them. But it was supposedly increasing like by
Speaker 1: some crazy percentage year. It's it's up eleven. So it's
Speaker 1: gone down. So I think people have just gotten scared
Speaker 1: of it, more wary about it. But um, I mean
Speaker 1: it's still obviously a pretty big problem. Part of the
Speaker 1: problem though, is that we shouldn't be using so security
Speaker 1: numbers for identification for a reason. They're just way too
Speaker 1: publicly available. Even the last four digits, Um, don't use
Speaker 1: that as like your pin number. No, But I mean,
Speaker 1: even if somebody asks you your last four digits, how
Speaker 1: many people do have your last four digits? How many
Speaker 1: companies A lot? And they also have your birth date,
Speaker 1: they also have where you're born, your mother's maiden name.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of like it's all out there, and
Speaker 1: basically there's no really good scheme two. I guess uses
Speaker 1: as a pass code as a past basically a way
Speaker 1: of saying I am me, because if we all just
Speaker 1: relied on some other number or something like that, then
Speaker 1: people could find that out. There's really no good way
Speaker 1: to do it. But um, so security numbers are definitely
Speaker 1: not the answer. Yeah. I always get a little creeped
Speaker 1: out when some business, you know, what are the last
Speaker 1: like Comcast or something like my cable company. We'll say
Speaker 1: what are your last words of your social and I'll
Speaker 1: spit it out and they'll go, okay, right. You can
Speaker 1: say I don't want to tell you, I want to
Speaker 1: answer everything else, and they'll they'll run you through your paces.
Speaker 1: But they know it because they're asking you for identific
Speaker 1: like for verification exactly because you've given it to them already. Um,
Speaker 1: you don't. There's basically most companies don't have any legal
Speaker 1: right to ask you what you're so security number is.
Speaker 1: But they can also say, well, we don't trust you,
Speaker 1: so if you don't give it to us when you
Speaker 1: open your account or whatever, then um, you're out of luck. Um.
Speaker 1: With government agencies, you can ask for the UM Privacy
Speaker 1: Act of nineteen seventy four, disclosure notice, which says like, hey,
Speaker 1: we have a legal right to ask you this, or
Speaker 1: we don't, and then you can say you can't ask
Speaker 1: me that, bob. But um, all the protection advice I've
Speaker 1: given here is pretty basic. You know, don't carry your
Speaker 1: card in your wallet. Uh, cancel credit cards you don't use,
Speaker 1: don't share what don't we just cancel credit cards you
Speaker 1: don't use. There are things you should do, like keep
Speaker 1: an eye on your accounts, your credit card accounts, even
Speaker 1: though you don't use them. But that's not necessarily good advice,
Speaker 1: especially credit wise, because there's this thing called the available
Speaker 1: credit to um debt ratio. It's one of the ratios
Speaker 1: that they figure credit score with. And if you have
Speaker 1: a clean credit card you're not using that has like
Speaker 1: five or ten grand of available credit on it, that counts,
Speaker 1: and that's that makes you very attractive to people who
Speaker 1: are selling new houses or cars or whatever. So don't
Speaker 1: necessarily go do that, keep them in a safe deposit box,
Speaker 1: keep an eye on all your out even if you're
Speaker 1: not using them. Yeah, boy, my credit rating is so
Speaker 1: good right now. That's awesome, dude. It's like top five
Speaker 1: percentile somehow, and that is I say that as a
Speaker 1: testament to you out there who may have bad credit.
Speaker 1: You can repair it over time. Yeah you you you
Speaker 1: animially did good. Huh uh. Well, yeah, she's the one
Speaker 1: that helped me get my good credit back. That's good.
Speaker 1: That's CFO. Congratulations, man, it's a big deal. Thank you.
Speaker 1: It is good. And my debts, you know, from the
Speaker 1: past were I don't want to get into it, but
Speaker 1: they had less to do with me and more to
Speaker 1: do with like books, Heroin, like bad roommates and getting
Speaker 1: screwed over by you know, like, hey, you were supposed
Speaker 1: to pay this Georgia power bill eight years ago and
Speaker 1: it's still in my name and I didn't even know
Speaker 1: about it. That kind of thing, and just being lazy
Speaker 1: in college. Yeah, I missed my credit card payment. No
Speaker 1: big deal, I'll just pay it next month. I'm just
Speaker 1: kidna go buy some Heroin instead. I know it's you're
Speaker 1: doing in college, Chuck, not that, So I guess that's
Speaker 1: about it. Huh yeah. Um. One more piece of advice,
Speaker 1: which is actually good. Every few years, go uh to
Speaker 1: the ss A website and request a copy of your
Speaker 1: earnings and Benefit Estimate statement. Yeah, have you heard of this? Before,
Speaker 1: and I've never done it, and I'm gonna go do
Speaker 1: it today. Alright, let's go do it together. We'll both
Speaker 1: go do years together. We'll be like what. I've been
Speaker 1: working since I was thirteen, so I imagine I'm doing
Speaker 1: pretty good. Nice. Oh, we didn't talk about that. Um.
Speaker 1: The system is waited. The whole reason it was instituted
Speaker 1: was to help um, make sure that people don't fall
Speaker 1: through the cracks or whatever, and to help the poor
Speaker 1: more than the wealthy. Um. Although you get more money
Speaker 1: out the more money you put in, right, which is
Speaker 1: based on your income, so the money you make, the
Speaker 1: more you ban. But it's also disproportionately waited so that
Speaker 1: the people who are earning the least get a disproportionate
Speaker 1: amount out to help them correct amundo. Which is great.
Speaker 1: It's socialism at it's fine est, as you said. So
Speaker 1: uh yeah, that's about it. That's social security numbers and
Speaker 1: pretty much so security. I don't think I'm going to
Speaker 1: do that again. Hats off the FDR for ah new deal,
Speaker 1: great society. UM, chicken in every pot that was hoover
Speaker 1: a number on every forehead. Nice check, thank you. We'll
Speaker 1: end it with that one. If you want to know
Speaker 1: more about social security numbers, you can read this exhaustive
Speaker 1: article about them um by typing in social security in
Speaker 1: the search bart how stuff works dot com, which means
Speaker 1: it time for listener mail Josh, I'm gonna call this
Speaker 1: following up on zero. That one got a lot more
Speaker 1: uh attention than I thought. All the math nerds came
Speaker 1: out like zero, very happy that we did that. And
Speaker 1: one such nern email this um, Stephen, and he says,
Speaker 1: I think I might be able to put your mind
Speaker 1: to rest on a couple of those zero properties. And
Speaker 1: a lot of people try to explain this, and I
Speaker 1: think he did the best. Uh first, dividing by zero,
Speaker 1: I find it helpful to think of division as separating
Speaker 1: objects into containers. See this guy is like talking up
Speaker 1: my alley. Yeah, I can visualize stuff a lot better
Speaker 1: this way. So, if you have five objects and five containers,
Speaker 1: you would put one object in each container. You still
Speaker 1: have the same number of objects, but divided evenly across containers. Now,
Speaker 1: if you have five objects and no containers, in other words,
Speaker 1: dividing by zero, you still have all the same objects,
Speaker 1: but they have not been put anywhere. You can't say
Speaker 1: that you'd put zero per container because it's not a
Speaker 1: lack of items, but rather a lack of containers. So
Speaker 1: dividing by zero means you have things but nothing to
Speaker 1: contain them. So our ratio cannot be formed makes sense? Right? Um?
Speaker 1: As for the raising to the zero zero power, um,
Speaker 1: this is one because our basis of numerology is the
Speaker 1: number one. All things larger are functions of how many
Speaker 1: ones it holds, and all things larger to find how
Speaker 1: many need to be combined to form a one. This,
Speaker 1: combined with the fact that exponents don't describe a multiplication,
Speaker 1: but rather a number of times a base measurement will
Speaker 1: be multiplied by a factor, means that if the base
Speaker 1: measurement is never multiplied by the factor, you're left with
Speaker 1: the base alone. So there you have it. It's tempting
Speaker 1: to think of these numbers as one to the power,
Speaker 1: but unfortunately this is wrong. You can keep go over
Speaker 1: that again, now I can't. Uh. That is from Stephen,
Speaker 1: a junior software engine here. Thanks Stephen, so I will
Speaker 1: take him at his word. Yeah, he sounds like he's
Speaker 1: gotta do. Yeah, the containers. That makes total sense to me. Now,
Speaker 1: so there you have it. So Thanks Stephen, junior software engineer.
Speaker 1: We are looking forward to you becoming a senior software engineer,
Speaker 1: likely in the near future. From your email. UM, and
Speaker 1: if you have some sort of illumination UM about a
Speaker 1: previous podcast, doesn't matter how old it is. We always
Speaker 1: like hearing new stuff about old stuff. UM. You can
Speaker 1: send it in an email to uh well, first tweet
Speaker 1: to us Okay, that's why sk podcast Facebook dot com,
Speaker 1: slash Stuff as you know, and then the email Stuff
Speaker 1: podcast at Discovery dot com. Be sure to check out
Speaker 1: our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how
Speaker 1: Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and
Speaker 1: perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. Brought to you by the reinvented
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve Camry. It's ready, are you