What happens when the US runs out of SSNs?

LordCrom@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 98 points –

SSN numbers are good for 999,999,999 people alive or dead. At some point the US will hit that, right? Do we start reusing numbers? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

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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.

The LMS we use at my school can't handle multiple students with the same name. So we have John Smith and John Smith-2. We have like 2000 new students each year, and we have recently transitioned to this LMS. Smh

In this two thousand and twenty fourth year of our lord, there are still people using databases that don’t automatically append a unique number to entries to avoid this exact scenario…

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