One of my old, old articles that still draws occasional questions is one I wrote back in the golden (so it now seems) pre-Patriot Act days — an article about working without a social security number.<\/p>\n
The questions always carry a tone of desperation. They’re from people trying to do the right thing for themselves and their families and feeling increasingly pressured.<\/p>\n
I have no good answers. So many doors have closed in the last 10 years. <\/p>\n
Here’s the latest such letter. My response, such as it is, is below. If you have anything better, fire away in the comments section.<\/p>\n
Hello Claire Wolfe,<\/p>\n
I just found your article about working without a social security number<\/a>:<\/p>\n
I am a believer in natural living, homebirth, health freedom, homesteading, etc. and my family thinks I am absolutely nuts that I didn’t get my child a social security number at birth. Honestly, I was afraid of my child being monitored for all the so-called vaccines (a higher number every year, and some that are killing kids) that they try to force on children now and I didn’t care so much about the tax write-off. I was asking myself, “Is this going to put my child more into the government database keeping track of all health related records and who knows what else?” As the years go by I feel more pressured to get my child ‘the number’ but don’t want to do something stupid that I will regret. I myself of course have one (that I got only when I was a teenager starting a job) and never understood why a baby would even need one for a system that will not have any money when the child is grown anyway. <\/p>\n
My husband is in the process of getting a spousal visa to come here and of course had to do the biometric visa junk and who knows what else. On his paperwork the box is checked for him to receive a social security number as well. I feel like we just have to deal with the fact he will be better off having one to not have any more headache.<\/p>\n
I have tried to defend my position (some call it being paranoid, but to me it was nerve-wracking), but honestly I feel like I am about to give in and just go get the child a social security number so I can purchase insurance, open a savings account in the child’s name and so on.<\/p>\n
As you said here<\/a>, “No law requires you to get a Social Security number, even today. But try functioning in the everyday world of work, banking, credit, schooling, home-buying, or even video rental without one.”<\/p>\n
Exactly. I went to the bank the other day and was told I could NOT open a minor savings account with the minor’s social security number, period. I was told my only other option was to keep a minimum $300 balance on a regular savings in my name (a minor account has no minimum balance of course) with the child listed as ‘payable on death’ and the child could still never be added without that number.<\/p>\n
I plan to homeschool and am generally afraid of losing my freedom more everyday. Do you think I am giving in to a bad system to get the social security number and just quit fighting this particular battle? <\/p>\n
Thanks,
\nLisa D.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAs I said, I have no good<\/i> answers for anybody in Lisa’s position. But the question of picking battles is always a valid one for all of us who give a damn.<\/p>\n
Do I think you should quit fighting this particular battle, Lisa?<\/p>\n
What I think doesn’t matter. All that matters is what you want vs what you can bear.<\/p>\n
If you want to have a “normal” life, operating within the system,<\/strong> then yes, you probably should quit fighting this particular battle. That’s not to say you should give up, accept defeat, and kowtow to Our Masters. That’s just to say that the sheer exhaustion of trying to raise an un-numbered child within the system<\/i> (not to mention the stigma that peers and adults might put on your child) might take away energy you need to do something more productive. <\/p>\n
Even the one feeble “solution” your bank dangled before you — “payable on death” is piss-poor. Obviously, you shouldn’t have to die for your child to get his or her money. And even if you did, the bank would make a numberless heir beg, threaten, and\/or pay penalties on the money before turning it over. (Who knows what new restrictions will be in place at that time? For all we know, a numberless person attempting to claim money years from now might be automatically considered a terrorist; we’re close to that point already. “If you see something, say something!”)<\/p>\n
BUT … if you choose to quit this particular battle and put your child “within the system,” be sure to choose to live your freedom and defend your child’s freedom on some other front — which it sounds as if you’re fully prepared to do.<\/p>\n
If you truly want to keep your child free of the dangers of citizen tracking numbers<\/strong>, then recognize that there are other options besides the mainstream. Quit banging your head on things like bank accounts. That’s not the only way to save (and in these days of zero interest it’s actually a pathetic way to save). Opening a bank account for an unnumbered person is a nightmare. But you can still buy silver and small amounts of gold — in complete, numberless anonymity if you want to. You can still set up various trusts and small corporations to transact business for your child, especially since you and your husband are already stuck with, and presumably continuing to use, numbers. <\/p>\n
Forget what any “establishment” expects of you. Go elsewhere. Options already exist. As conventional financial systems fall, new opportunities and options may crop up. Watch for them. Or create them for yourself.<\/p>\n
Even head-banging can be useful.<\/strong> I know. You’ve run up against intractable problems and this is only the beginning. But sometimes trying to do the right thing and failing<\/i> is useful in itself. Only by testing the limits do we really come to understand just how far tyranny has already reached and how much farther it might go to keep its fearsome hold on power. And of course, people who continue to nudge and prod at seemingly immovable systems sometimes do end up changing<\/i> systems in the long run.<\/p>\n
So you never know. It depends on who you are, what you’re willing to put up with, which battles mean the most to you.<\/p>\n
All I can say is, “Good luck” — and whatever choice you make, don’t let it be a defeat.<\/p>\n
Oh. And if anybody noticed that the three options I just described fit pretty well the profiles of the Mole, the Ghost, and The Agitator<\/a> … it really is coincidence.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t thinking of those at all when I wrote the above. Again and again they just happen to turn up as very apt profiles for a variety of Freedom Outlaws<\/a>.*<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
* That last link is to Mac the Knife’s First Freedom Outlaw Brigade store. NFI on my part. I just think Mac and his artist did a great job and have produced terrific fun stuff for any Outlaw who wants to show his or her colors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of my old, old articles that still draws occasional questions is one I wrote back in the golden (so it now seems) pre-Patriot Act days — an article about working without a social security number. The questions always carry a tone of desperation. They’re from people trying to do the right thing for themselves and their families and feeling increasingly pressured. I have no good answers. So many doors have closed in the last 10 years. Here’s the latest such letter. My response, such as it is, is below. If you have anything better, fire away in the comments…<\/p>\n