> Except if the SS number was not meant to identify people, what was it for? It was meant to track people throughout their lives to set the amount they get pai

> Except if the SS number was not meant to identify people, what was it for? It was meant to track people throughout their lives to set the amount they get paid by the program based on what they made / what SS tax they paid. Sure, but there's a huge difference between identifying people's accounts with Social Security / IRS and being a National ID card used for everything everywhere. It's was designed for the first, and intentionally forbidden for use as the latter, despite everyone using it that way anyway. Social Security cards literally said "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" right on them, for 30 years, to try to stop this from happening. It did anyway...