• Willie@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    If he was fully committed to the bit, he wouldn’t have hidden his SSN from this picture.

  • son_named_bort@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Ripping up the social security card doesn’t actually remove the number from the system, so the sovereign citizen accomplished nothing.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    So what’s the next step in this brilliant plan, then?
    Notify through the proper channels and with fancy legal jargon:
    “I destroyed MY copy so you now have to destroy YOURS, United States government!”

      • lemmylommy@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Here is Germany it’s a bit more complicated:

        We have a tax id that never changes and is assigned to every person at birth. It’s used for tax purposes. There was some opposition against it due to the centralized and permanent nature, so politicians are careful not to openly use it for other purposes. Behind the scenes it is on the way to become a universal id number for most government databases.

        Then there is the tax number, which contains a number of the tax office in your region, so if you move you get a new one. Businesses also get them. This was the old system, which is still in use today.

        Health insurance and pension have their own number schemes.

        For identification with private parties (like banks) you use your id or passport, which have their own numbers. Owning either an id card or a passport is mandatory.

        • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Sounds like our SSN is similar to your tax id. It’s assigned at birth and never changes.

          The real problem is that for decades virtually every company and other entity that needed to uniquely identify a person used your SSN as well, despite the federal government saying it shouldn’t be used that way. For whatever reason they never enforced that, but just said “pretty please”… So now virtually everything from taxes to library books to bank accounts to utility bills are tied to our SSNs.

        • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          Similar to the Netherlands. We have a Citizen Service Number, which is used for government stuff (taxes, welfare, etc), employment, banking and loans and related things that require you to prove you’re you.

          For most other things, they write the document number of your official ID, which is not personal info, but very easily traced back to you by the police if you, say, don’t pay for your hotel room.

      • superkret@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        German here. We have a social security number which just serves its original purpose of identifying you for social security.
        We have a tax number for taxes.
        And we have a national ID card for most other purposes where you’d need to identify yourself.
        It even comes with a neat feature where you can use it for online identification and it only reveals just as much information as needed (like are you over 18 or not).

        • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          It even comes with a neat feature where you can use it for online identification and it only reveals just as much information as needed (like are you over 18 or not).

          That is neat, we need that

      • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 month ago

        If I understand it correctly, a number uniquely identifying a human, then in Slovakia that would be “rodné číslo” - “birth number”.

        E.g.:
        891117/1236
        Which is YYMMDD/(that day’s sequential number of birth)(checksum digit)

        For women the month (MM) has 50 added to it.

      • expatriado@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        it was not the initial intent to be a multipurpose national id number, but it turned out to be that way because states rights and stuff

    • Mesophar
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      1 month ago

      It’s just a form of national identification number. It’s assigned at birth, and is used as a means to legally identify an individual for government purposes (taxes, benefits, acquiring licenses and other forms of identification). They exist in Europe as well, they are just called something different than SSN. Not every country uses them, though.

      • Nougat@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        Not assigned “at birth,” assigned when you or your parents apply for one. That normally, these days, happens shortly after birth, but it has not always been that way, and it is not an obligation.

        • Mesophar
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          1 month ago

          That is fair, I gave an over-simplification. But generally it will be part of the overall process.

    • RebekahWSD@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Very easy to get a replacement, as far as things go. I’ll assume the office doesn’t require an appointment (it did during covid). Just go in, wait, talk to a clerk, explain either you never had one or lost it (I think there’s a higher charge for losing it over never having had one), pay a reasonable fee, get new card mailed to you. Out of several government things I’ve had to do, getting a card was simple.

    • finley
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      1 month ago

      i know that US currency is actually a textile, not paper-- it’s 25% linen and 75% cotton. not sure about social security cards, but there is precedent for using fabric and other textiles in the creation of government documents, and it’s specifically to make them more durable.

      https://www.bep.gov/currency/how-money-is-made

    • jake_jake_jake_@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      they are actually made to quickly degrade when exposed to the elements so if you drop it in public it will not stay around forever for someone to find

    • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It just feels like very sturdy paper. There may be denim involved in the making of it but you absolutely can easily tear them. I’ve had to replace one before when it got torn accidently

    • ivanafterall@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I just tested it on mine and it was surprisingly easy to tear it to shreds. I don’t think there’s any denim in there.

    • SSTF@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It’s a soggy piece of cardboard that “they” give you at birth and you have to hold onto it with your tiny baby hand, and then you have to keep it until you’re like 90 years old. If this soggy, easy to lose or destroy card gets lost or destroyed you have to prove to the magically animated statue of Abraham Lincoln himself that you’re American to get a replacement.

      This card is explicitly not an ID card, but the only thing it ever gets used for is as an ID card.

    • SynopsisTantilize
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      1 month ago

      Yea we do. Social security number card. You use those, a birth certificate, drivers license, and two pieces of reputable mail (for proof of existence and address) to do most big ticket purchases or verify yourself before cars, houses, clearances, update drivers license. Etc…etc…

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Not any more.

      For the longest time my home state used SSNs as drivers license numbers. I think the federal government finally told them to stop, and years ago now we all got new randomly generated numbers on our licenses instead of SSNs.