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A social security number enables you to do many vital things like work, pay taxes, or open a bank account in America. To get your number contact Social Security Administration on http://www.ssa.gov. Eventually you will have to prove your identity by presenting your passport, visa, and I-94. Just as these documents are important, it is important that you do not reveal your social security number unnecessarily or your credit and identity can be ruined.

Social security also refers to the system in which Americans pay taxes to support the elderly and disabled (see pensions) and others not able to support themselves. There are many fractures in the system and currently there is a wide-spread fear that at the rate of expansion in the United States social security will not support today's youth when they become elderly.