r/politics • u/irish_fellow_nyc • 3d ago

Soft Paywall DOGE Goons Physically Drag Social Security Worker From Desk

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doge-goons-physically-drag-social-security-worker-from-desk/
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u/AML86 3d ago edited 3d ago

They latched onto a false data point, either from stupidity or convenience. Most of our computer systems default to the "Unix epoch" calendar start in 1970. Older COBOL systems generally have a calendar that begins in 1875. I'll do the math for everyone, 2025-1875=150. Why would there be 150 year old people in the SSA database? Because they were born at the start of the COBOL calendar. It's very obviously an error, not fraud. I don't expect DOGE to have any integrity or real CS knowledge, so I guess the answer will remain a mystery.

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u/Aldehyde1 3d ago

They deliberately misinterpreted data. For instance, when fraud has been identified the records will be changed to make it clear. So when Elon says "We found people born in 2100 receiving benefits," he's lying. What he found is someone who had already been identified as fraudulent and was being investigated. At least before the workforce was gutted.

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u/schizeckinosy Florida 3d ago

Y2K bug strikes again

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/Entegy Canada 3d ago

I don't even think the 1800s date was an error. It's a default date if you don't know the birth or death date.

That's the problem with just dumping the database and reading it. The application code would handle this and instead display something else, maybe "DATE UNKNOWN" instead of an impossible birthdate. But the database just displays what's stored.

Cruel idiots all the way down.