>Probably not many remember the general amazement and dismay when it became a requirement that all born in this country be registered with the social security administration and given an ssn number. When that happened people were yelling and screaming that the next thing was big brother and computer chips buried in your skin to track your whereabouts...

I heard one of the authors of Freakonomics speak last night and he mentioned this. Specifically, he talked about the rule in '87 that you had to include a child's SS# on your 1040 to take the child as a deduction. It was done with the thought that some divorced folks were double-dipping, probably accidentally. Turned out that _millions_ of "children" disappeared from the tax rolls.

Tamar