Do we? Our SSN is not a unique number, and not just because the keyspace is too small for our population. (It's worse: some of the prefixes are geographically related.)
https://www.ssa.gov/employer/randomization.html https://www.ssa.gov/employer/randomizationfaqs.html
Even if what you say were true, handwaving this as unimportant because it only affects people over the age of ten seems a bit silly.
The post that I replied to is almost entirely incorrect as it relates to available SSN “keyspace” (misnomer), uniqueness, etc.—-for which geographic prefixes and group numbers are relevant.
I supplied direct sources, so no idea what your “even if what you say were true” skepticism is rooted in.
Freeze your credit. Burden shouldn’t fall on the consumer, but it’s easy and easy to lift when needed.
Identity Theft is actually just fraud. And the companies that allowed the fraud should be required to shoulder the burden of addressing that matter with the actual people who committed the fraud. No part of that burden should ever be placed on you, just because someone pretended to be you and commit a fraud.
The root of the problem is sharing the private information. Why your credit reports are shared among completely different entities? Nobody want to gives them a consent to share your private information.
> system of universal secure IDs
Actually, it's the opposite. US has universal ID(not secure though). That's the problem. If there exist one idiot who doesn't verify your identity, everything fails in chain reaction, because everybody else believe the idiot.