Elon Musk, the world's richest person, has drawn attention to significant inconsistencies within the U.S. Social Security database. According to Musk, the database lists 398 million "living" individuals, while official U.S. government data indicates only 341 million people in the country. This discrepancy raises questions about the accuracy of the Social Security system, which issues unique Social Security Numbers (SSNs) to U.S. citizens and some non-citizens, including green card holders and work visa recipients.
Musk's findings also reveal implausible age data, with over 1.3 million individuals aged 150-159 and thousands purportedly over 200 years old. Two particularly notable entries include individuals aged 240-249 and 360-369, the latter of whom would have been born during the mid-1600s.
Technical experts suggest these discrepancies may be due to outdated coding systems, such as COBOL, which still underpin many government databases. COBOL, developed in the 1950s, is difficult to maintain and costly, yet it continues to be used for critical financial systems. Some experts argue that errors in date fields might default to years like 1875, explaining the presence of implausibly aged individuals.
The resolution of these discrepancies will depend on further updates from Musk and the U.S. government. The issue underscores the challenges of maintaining legacy systems and the potential for errors in large-scale databases.
