I DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ SOCIAL SECURITY CARD….DO I?….Matt Yglesias keeps us informed of his whereabouts:
Off to the local Social Security Administration office to try to get a replacement Social Security card, hopefully this won’t take too long….
Really? What for? I suppose I must have gotten a Social Security card back in the day, but I lost it almost immediately and never replaced it. Why would you? Are there circumstances where you need the actual card itself, not just the number? Have I been living dangerously for the past few decades? Just curious.
UPDATE: California must be more different than I ever realized. Loads of commenters are telling me that in various other states you must present an actual Social Security card if you want to get a driver’s license, apply for a job, etc. etc. I had no idea. No one has ever even asked me for mine.
Of course, this makes the whole “National ID Card” frenzy even more ridiculous than it is. If a physical Social Security card is something you already have to have in most states, then why not ditch it and just give everyone a different and more reliable national ID card? What’s the harm?
