As Jerry Pournelle observed when someone sent him this article.
"As I understand it, the original Social Security Act promised that the Social Security Number would never become a national ID number, nor SS Number be used for identification. So it goes."
But, but, I thought that we could trust the government! Yeah.
This is exactly why I am generally opposed to government intervention into sociey. No matter how well-intentioned a program starts out, it spawns ugly unintended consequences, becomes a political football, or both.
How do you think that poor guy who's Social Security number was hijacked by terrorists feels?