As I waited for the train this morning, I had a discussion with a man about the recent use of social for social security number. It is annoying to both of us, and my friend says that when people ask him what his social is, he says, "Oh, moderate, I'd say."

However, even more annoying, I am beginning to hear, "What is your soc?" (Pronounced "sosh" with a long "o")

Is it really so hard to say "social security number?"

I prefer SSN.

I am not a number, I am a free man!

Given your job, are you sure you want to assert the right to not be "pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered."

Ininspection week my life doesn't feel like my own. my own

I am not a number, I am a free man!

Did you know that when the Marquis de Sade was in the Bastille, right before the French Revolution began, he was known by his cell number? Monsieur Numero Six. (Mr Number 6.) I've always wondered if Patrick McGoohan knew this or if it was just a coinkydinky.

I've heard social as an abbreviation for Social Security Number quite a few times. Maybe I'm too recently out of college, but to me, "sosh", is short for "social drink", i.e., when you are playing a drinking game, and everyone has to take a drink.

quote:

I prefer SSN

I could never say that because it reminds me of the Nazi SS. I just don't see the problem with saying social security number.

Do you have anything like this in England? It used to be that we'd only use our SSN on forums very rarely. Now every Tom, Dick and Harry, poised with fingers on computers, says, "What's your soc?" I think we give it out way too much.

National Insurance Number.
I've never heard anyone abbreviate it to anything else. Maybe occasionally someone might say NI Number.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

I don't think the NI number is used here to anything like the extent the SSN is apparently used in the US. It's needed for payroll purposes and other tax-and-benefit-related government purposes. Certainly, "every Tom, Dick and Harry" doesn't ask for it (and would get short shrift from me if he tried!).

quote:

National Insurance Number.
I've never heard anyone abbreviate it to anything else. Maybe occasionally someone might say NI Number.

I feel so let down! Don't you all have some kind of quirky, rhyming slang for this, or some hip, seemingly unrelated way of asking for this number?

Our SSN isn't supposed to be used for any ID except the official ones, or at least we USED to have a law like that. Either there is no longer a law, or it was never enforced which made it a ridiculous law on the books, anyway. We've just recently run a program through our system to take all SSNs off of the customer records for privacy protection reasons. We're doing whatever we can to help preserve a person's right to read whatever he wants.

The US doesn't have a federal identity card, so the SSN has been becoming a de facto over the years. State drivers' licenses and credit cards are also used for ID purposes. One would think that a US passport could be used for a federal ID, but many Americans don't have one or have seen one. I thought the NI number could be called NINo.

The majority of us don't want ID cards here, either. The current government wants to introduce them but there is so much opposition, including from their own side, that it is likely that their plans will be quietly dropped.

Although we have, I understand, a higher proportion of people with passports than the US, there are many people who don't have a passport or a driving licence. Many (older people in particular) don't have any form of plastic card, either. ID cards would go a long way towards solving problems of this sort, but the Labour proposals seem likely to be at too high a cost (literal and metaphorical).

The NI number is, however, not used for ID purposes, as I mentioned above.

Actually, rather like the ever shifting reasons for going to war in Iraq, the British Government keeps on shifting the ground. The "need" for identity cards has by turns been presented as

i) a way to prevent terrorism
ii) a way to combat terrorism (note the shift of emphasis)
iii) a way to prevent fraud and other serious crimes
iv) a way to combat identity theft
v) a useful document to have for general identification purposes

All of these are clearly nonsense and designed to avoid the real reason

vi) a way to control the population

Unlike arnie I am pessimistic. I believe that they will be introduced, probably under the guise of biometric passports, they will become compulsory and they will be used to control the people.

Gets more like 1984 every day.

quote:

Originally posted by zmjezhd:
I've always wondered if Patrick McGoohan knew this or if it was just a coinkydinky.

Ohhhh, you're showing your age, zmj!

"They've given you a number, and taken 'way your name." I wonder what really happens to all those people who "know too much?" But then, with all the mis and dis-information floating around, does it even matter?

quote:

We've just recently run a program through our system to take all SSNs off of the customer records for privacy protection reasons. We're doing whatever we can to help preserve a person's right to read whatever he wants.

Yes, when I used to post grades, we used to do so by the social security numbers because all our class enrollments identified students that way. Soon...the students needed a different number, and we then could no longer post the social security numbers. It all makes a whole lot of sense, and I can't believe I ever posted them in the first place.

However, many business ask for social security numbers, and people feel as though they must give it (even though they don't have to). People just need to understand their rights more.

In Singapore, they use their national ID cards as their library cards. Would certainly cut down on fraudulent/multiple cards!

In Canada it's called a Social Insurance Number. I believe that when it was originally introduced, the intention was that it was to be used only in interactions between citizens and the federal government. However, it was immediately seized upon by all and sundry organizations as a registration number. Gradually, people began to refuse to give their number to any but the feds and the S.I.N. eventually reverted to its original use. In my particular province, it is now almost impossible to register with any organization (for example, minor hockey) without quoting your Medical Care Plan (MCP) number.(That's the lovely little number that gets us Canucks FREE MEDICAL CARE--but I digress...)
I just checked my wallet. I got....2 calling cards, hospital card and MCP card (same number), firearms licence, library card, debit card, credit card, driver's licence and salmon fishing licence. I'm not a number, I'm lotsa numbers.

Interesting collection of cards, Duncan.

I was at a conference once (nurses, so mostly women) where the icebreaker was for us to take interesting things out of our purse and talk about them. You'd be so surprised at what some women have in their purses!

The trend in my own area - maybe all over the US? - is to "register" with stores and get their special "buying card" that will, supposedly, give you special discounts at their store. They've conveniently come up with a "key tag" option at most places so you end up with a key ring full of little shopping tags (and consequently a more unweidly key ring that doesn't fit smoothly into your jeans pocket). As a result, I now have 2 wallets. One has my essentials - my Driver's License, Health Insurance card, bank card and cash. My supplemental wallet has all those other cards, coupons, credit cards I'm only using in emergencies, etc. I don't always take my supplemental wallet with me . . . because it takes up room that I could use for my knitting.

Life gets so complicated, doesn't it, CW?

My daughters always go "tsk tsk" when they see that I always carry the same purse. Who has the time, or the inclination, to switch purses all the time? Besides that, I am then quite likely to forget some major object, like my wallet or my train ticket. It's one purse for me!

Then of course, there is more "tsk tsking" when I call it my purse. Those in the know call it a bag. Hrrummph! (or however it's spelled!) I think of a bag as something to carry my groceries in.

My daughters always go "tsk tsk" when they see that I always carry the same purse.

But do they pronounce tsk as a dental click or as /tIsk/, rhyming with whisk.

The dental click. Frankly, I haven't really heard anyone say "tisk," even though that's how it's supposed to be spelled (I think).

Kalleh - all I can say about the purse/bag thing is that I'm glad I have a son.

As far as tsk/tisk . . . I have said "tisk tisk" sometimes, when being particularly catty about something. Usually I make the dental clicking sound. Hehehe - it particularly annoys my husband.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
The dental click. Frankly, I haven't really heard anyone say "tisk," even though that's how it's supposed to be spelled (I think).

Thaaaaayyyy, you haven't watched very many Sylvester and Tweetie cartoons, have you? (TISK, TISK!!!!) Of course, the folks who did those cartoons in the 1930s-1940s were playing with language all the time!

In my experience, "tisk tisk" sounded as two actual dental clicks is a form of mild reproof, whereas the single word 'tisk' pronounced as it's spelled means something like "That's too damn bad." or "Tough titty (deal with it)." -- i.e. it expresses a refusal to cooperate in a situation where the other person is fishing for sympathy.

Phroggye