Considering there are around 330M citizens right now, I think they ran out already and they’re probably recycling them.
this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
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You could be right about them recycling numbers already, but 330 million < 999 million, so that wouldn't be why
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Just add another digit and watch the entire country break down because they can't find someone to update their 40+ year old software written in COBOL.
Sorry we can't employ you as your ssn is too long. Also we can't have any new employees called Mike Smith as the HR system already has someone with that name.
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I want to see the high-octane action thriller where the grizzled old hand and the renegade upstart trek to the remote compound in the woods of Montana to find Bob, the last man alive who understands how some obscure part of the IRSs core systems works and bring him back in from the cold for one last job... to save America(s neglected computer systems from decades of under investment)
Act II needs to have an overdone political scene where congress doesn’t want to pass the budget and almost shuts down the Fed meanwhile some hackers from try to take advantage of the situation or whatever
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We could switch to hexadecimal digits and we’d be good for 68 billion.
Just use IPv6
Why stop at hex? You could use the entire alphabet. Even if you take only uppercase letters and numbers, we are at 36^9 possible numbers. If we include lowercase and special characters from ASCII, we can go much further.
E. G. For storage and performs reasons. 5 bytes vs 9 bytes. Multiplying by amount of users and various indexes - can produce very noticeably difference. More records per page.
If we say that the SSN database internally only stores numbers today, but could also store hexadecimal values without significant redesigns, I would assume that SSNs are stored as text already. So no matter if you put numbers, hex or text, 9 places will always use 9 bytes (assuming it's ASCII only and doesn't support UTF-8 etc.).
Furthermore, the post implied that the current technical limit is 999,999,999. That very much sounds like a character data type to me. Otherwise, the limit is usually something like 2^x.
If SSNs are stored as numbers today, then hex and text would lead to quite some change. If you go for a re-design, you can as well just increase the length of the field.
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Probably recycle the oldest ones because those people will be long dead by then.
But let's not kid ourselves, everyone paying into SS right now is never going to get the benefit of it because it will have collapsed.
It can never collapse unless Congress votes to make it collapse. Even in the future once the trust fund is spent down, benefits will be reduced to what comes in from current workers. That's not the full amount but it will be something. I think something like 70%.
So it's not going to collapse unless you think that anything but full benefits is a collapse.
SS numbers can't start with a 9, so you might wanna recalculate that.
Why not?
Reserved for employer identification numbers.
Or newborn babies. I still got a 950 number written on the back of my official birth certificate.
Interesting, never heard of that. I've certainly obtained EINs that begin 95-...
I don't make the rules, but here ya go..
https://en.as.com/en/2021/10/19/latest_news/1634661081_521261.html
I think they're used as placeholders while they file the documents. My OG SS number started with 950, but that only lasted until the paperwork was complete.
Obviously I won't be sharing my private info here though, but yeah, those numbers can't officially start with a 9.
There are several more that aren't used. There are a few reserved for promotions or movies and such. 666, 900-999 and 000 numbers are out as well.
I believe that SSNs have to pass a luhn check too.
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