Social Security numbers are not ID numbers, as other posters have written. Other countries (including Israel, where I live) do have ID numbers, and they are us

Social Security numbers are not ID numbers, as other posters have written. Other countries (including Israel, where I live) do have ID numbers, and they are used universally -- by governments, employers, credit-card companies, and the like. I actually very much like the convenience that this gives me. I have one number to remember, and I don't worry very much about it being taken or used by someone else.