The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced today that beginning April 1st social security cards will be issued with 12 digits. The reason for the change is said to be due to the number of illegal immigrants pouring across our borders annually. Some people speculate that the SSA is being short sighted and that cards with 15 digits would be more appropriate. Other people say it's a waste of time since the Social Security is projected to be bankrupt by the year 2012.
The change is projected to have the same widespread economic effect on American businesses as those implemented for Y2K. Millions of paper and digital business forms will need to be revised to accommodate the increased social security number (SSN) size. Wall Street labor experts estimate the time required to type in the three additional numbers will cost American businesses approximately $675M annually.
Bootlegged SSN cards have already begun to show up in California welfare offices and SSA officials warn businesses to question any SSN card they see with hand printed numbers.
