3 ms·

I think they were being sarcastic.

• jchw 7y ago
  I get this, but I mean, they did actually do it, so apparently the idea didn’t set off any alarm bells in their head. I guess it must’ve just not been well thought out.
  • mirimir 7y ago
    This was in 1938. Just three years after the Social Security Administration had been created. Most people still had telephone party lines. People didn't get how some government number could be really important.
    • klaustopher 7y ago
      Also, at that point it was not this global number that was used to identify you everywhere. It was your registration number in the Social Security system, not more. Well, you could use it to pay into somebody else‘s pension ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Aomebody linked a CGP Grey video above that goes into details.
  • maitredusoi 7y ago
    You are thinking with a 2019 point of view, this was effectivly 1938, people were less aware of consequences of their actions (as history of that dark period shown accross the World ...). Also,probably at that time people thought that a real SSN would shine more than 000-00-0000, as any other number could potentially be a "real" number from an unkown person ...