re: #57 Teddy’s Person

My 83 year old dad is going to get the RealID license when he renews in June. We were talking about the requirements, and he pulls out his original social security card that he got when he was a teen. At the bottom, it specifically says “FOR SOCIAL SECURITY PURPOSES ▪ NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION.” Not sure when the government changed its mind.

IIRC the government had to put that disclaimer on the cards to mollify wingnuts who said the cards were part of the dreaded “national ID” communist scourge. Of course, practically speaking, the SSN was used exactly for ID purposes in many situations.