On Consumerism: Our ubiquitous Social Security numbers

By ARTHUR VIDRO
By Arthur Vidro

When I was a kid, I saw on TV the 1950 movie “Champagne for Caesar,” starring Ronald Colman. He played the role of a successful contestant on the then-popular quiz shows. Nothing stumped him. He kept winning and winning and eventually became a national celebrity.

At the end of each show he would be offered the money he had won, or else he could return for a double-or-nothing situation and try to answer another question. He kept returning. Eventually he had won tens of millions of dollars (worth hundreds of millions today), but he kept risking it all to return.

Finally, in what was agreed upon as his last visit to the show, he risked it all again. The emcee asked him for his wallet. He handed it over. The emcee looked through it, found the contestant’s Social Security card, and stumped him with this question:

“What is your Social Security number?”

Back then, nobody memorized the number. There was no reason to.

My, how times have changed.

Here’s another example: When Dr. Richard Kimble (played by David Janssen) would slip into a town on the TV drama “The Fugitive” in the 1960s, he could land a job under an alias without giving the employer a valid Social Security number.

Again, times have changed.

We are all familiar nowadays with our Social Security numbers. They are bandied everywhere. Banks require them for opening an account. Nobody will lend you money to purchase a car or a home unless you provide your number. The military uses them. Your employer can demand your number before paying you.

It has gotten way out of hand.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

When Social Security was created in the 1930s, the assumption was one’s Social Security number would be used solely for transactions with the Social Security system.

I still have my original Social Security card, from the 1960s. It clearly states, “For Social Security and tax purposes – not for identification.”

Cards issued today make no such claim. The claim would be ludicrous. In telephone calls, the Social Security number is used routinely for identification with insurance companies, credit card providers, even some utilities – matters that have nothing to do with Social Security or taxes.

Entities that have no business needing your number claim to require it.

Two years ago I changed dentists. The form I had to fill out before the new dentist would see me asked for my Social Security number. Instead of giving it, I wrote, “There is no reason you need this information.” They didn’t ask again.

At least it was a paper form, which allowed me to write my answer. A computerized form usually doesn’t give you leeway.

Until recently, one’s Medicare card, presented upon every visit to a doctor, contained your Social Security number. How could such an inane system have developed? Perhaps because these numbers, when confined to paper records, were pretty much safe. Any stealing of numbers would have been piecemeal, not thousands or millions at a time as happens in the glorified computer age.

The IRS used to mail us tax booklets for filling out our returns. Attached was a mailing label with two purposes. First, it was used by the post office to deliver the booklet. Second, it was placed on the completed return by the recipient.

The label contained the recipient’s full nine-digit Social Security number.

So any nosy neighbor or postal worker could see your name, address, and Social Security number with one brief glance.

So where are we today? Well, Medicare and the IRS have changed their ways, allowing the consumer not to have their Social Security numbers handed around in public. But other risks remain.

Used to be nobody could steal money from your bank account unless they had your passbook. But passbooks don’t seem to be issued anymore. The result? People you have never met and never will meet, living thousands of miles away, can steal money from your bank account if they learn your Social Security number and perhaps a wee bit more information about you.

Identity theft occurs daily, simply because computerized data systems that harbor Social Security numbers get hacked.

Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit-reporting companies, got hacked in 2017, affecting the data of about 40% of the nation’s population. All those Social Security numbers, with names and birth dates attached, potentially in the wrong hands.

It is scary.

Makes me wish for the days of “Champagne for Caesar,” when nobody was interested in our Social Security numbers.

If you have consumerism questions, send them to Arthur Vidro in the care of this newspaper, which publishes his column every weekend.