11-15-2007, 07:52 PM
Imagine the wonders of modern technology explained to Socrates or Aristotle or Plato.
When I was born, children got Social Security Numbers about the age of five. Now they usually get them shortly after birth, and children's SSNs are on their parents' tax forms as deductions.
Computerized tracking of Social Security numbers can tell Federal agencies (and anyone else) a heck of a lot.
* Education completed (at least if the person paid for it with Federal student aid, which is likely because education is costly in the United States)
* If a man born after 1960 got Federal student aid, he probably had to register with the independent Federal agency that would handle the conscription of men if the draft was reinstated.
* A person's military and criminal records (if applicable) would also be accessible through the SSN, and if the person is a criminal, veteran, or former Federal employee, probably has fingerprints on file, probably for life
* All jobs ever held that involved the withholding of wages (kid jobs like newspaper routes and jobs paid under the table do not count)
* Because home addresses over time are part of the tax withholding, your migration over time can also theoretically be tracked by SSN
* If the person ever needs unemployment insurance or Food Stamps or Medicaid (health care for very poor) or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or Social Security Disability Income, Supplemental Security Income, or participated in vocational rehabilitation, etc., his or her employment and income is checked by computer
* Income and employment also determine eligibility for Medicare (health care for elderly, do not confuse with Medicaid) and Social Security retirement and what amount
* Driver's licenses and vehicle registrations are also tied into SSN
* Purchases of weapons often include a driver's license and the SSN is used to determine a criminal background check
* Credit cards and bank accounts are tied into SSN: the bank accounts must be if they are interest paying because interest is taxable income, even if ridiculously small in the U.S. (pennies per month for thousands in the bank for a traditional brick and glass bank, online banks pay 4% rates and are FDIC insured, no fees)
* Marriage could be determined from SSN by examining a joint Federal tax return (and maybe a marriage license)
* SSNs of dead people are kept on file
Reviewing a person's life, birth, marriage, divorce, parenthood, job changes, relocations, educational attainments, military service, criminal records, and death, is possible by typing one's SSN into a Federal computer terminal, at least theoretically and tempered by Federal privacy law. Many are concerned in the post-9/11 Patriot Act world that privacy law may shrink to nothing.
If the computer did not blow the philosopher's mind, the bar code or microchip would...
It is theoretically possible to insert a microchip into a person that would return a radio signal to a scanner that could correspond to a SSN, and could return the same information.
My cat has one of those. It is called Home Again. She has a tag, too, but if she loses her collar, she can be checked with a scanner, and identified as Chloe, owned by me, if we get separated, perhaps if a Category 5 hurricane hits Washington, like the experts in a Global Warning conjecture would be necessary to get people to get on the same page about global warming. (Maybe my lousy stinking leaking roof would blow off across the Potomac into Maryland, maybe Hurricane Isabel in 2003 made it leak)
Christians like myself have a major mega problem with putting something in their bodies that leaves a visible mark that functions as a substitute for currency. (Actually a bar code tattoo would fulfill the prophecy better) St. John warned that doing so would be a forfeiture of one's salvation by identifying with the Beast.
I am pretty sure that Visa and Master Card and Discover don't count.
If it wasn't for Revelations I'd be for it.
When I was born, children got Social Security Numbers about the age of five. Now they usually get them shortly after birth, and children's SSNs are on their parents' tax forms as deductions.
Computerized tracking of Social Security numbers can tell Federal agencies (and anyone else) a heck of a lot.
* Education completed (at least if the person paid for it with Federal student aid, which is likely because education is costly in the United States)
* If a man born after 1960 got Federal student aid, he probably had to register with the independent Federal agency that would handle the conscription of men if the draft was reinstated.
* A person's military and criminal records (if applicable) would also be accessible through the SSN, and if the person is a criminal, veteran, or former Federal employee, probably has fingerprints on file, probably for life
* All jobs ever held that involved the withholding of wages (kid jobs like newspaper routes and jobs paid under the table do not count)
* Because home addresses over time are part of the tax withholding, your migration over time can also theoretically be tracked by SSN
* If the person ever needs unemployment insurance or Food Stamps or Medicaid (health care for very poor) or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or Social Security Disability Income, Supplemental Security Income, or participated in vocational rehabilitation, etc., his or her employment and income is checked by computer
* Income and employment also determine eligibility for Medicare (health care for elderly, do not confuse with Medicaid) and Social Security retirement and what amount
* Driver's licenses and vehicle registrations are also tied into SSN
* Purchases of weapons often include a driver's license and the SSN is used to determine a criminal background check
* Credit cards and bank accounts are tied into SSN: the bank accounts must be if they are interest paying because interest is taxable income, even if ridiculously small in the U.S. (pennies per month for thousands in the bank for a traditional brick and glass bank, online banks pay 4% rates and are FDIC insured, no fees)
* Marriage could be determined from SSN by examining a joint Federal tax return (and maybe a marriage license)
* SSNs of dead people are kept on file
Reviewing a person's life, birth, marriage, divorce, parenthood, job changes, relocations, educational attainments, military service, criminal records, and death, is possible by typing one's SSN into a Federal computer terminal, at least theoretically and tempered by Federal privacy law. Many are concerned in the post-9/11 Patriot Act world that privacy law may shrink to nothing.
If the computer did not blow the philosopher's mind, the bar code or microchip would...
It is theoretically possible to insert a microchip into a person that would return a radio signal to a scanner that could correspond to a SSN, and could return the same information.
My cat has one of those. It is called Home Again. She has a tag, too, but if she loses her collar, she can be checked with a scanner, and identified as Chloe, owned by me, if we get separated, perhaps if a Category 5 hurricane hits Washington, like the experts in a Global Warning conjecture would be necessary to get people to get on the same page about global warming. (Maybe my lousy stinking leaking roof would blow off across the Potomac into Maryland, maybe Hurricane Isabel in 2003 made it leak)
Christians like myself have a major mega problem with putting something in their bodies that leaves a visible mark that functions as a substitute for currency. (Actually a bar code tattoo would fulfill the prophecy better) St. John warned that doing so would be a forfeiture of one's salvation by identifying with the Beast.
I am pretty sure that Visa and Master Card and Discover don't count.
If it wasn't for Revelations I'd be for it.
