Vivek: If your SSN ends in an odd, you're out.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

If it ends in an even you're in. That's 50% cut right there. Of those who remain, if your SSN starts with an even, you're in and if it starts with an odd you're out. That's 75% reduction.

Link to tweet

Is that how they do things in India?

[dalton99a]

1. He wants the elderly and poor to die in the street like in India

[dmr]

2. Well, I guess I'm out.

He's talking through his ass because that rationale won't work.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. But it clearly shows how they think.

Ten to one we can guess if his first and last digits of his social security number are odd or even?

[TexasTowelie]

3. It figures.

My MAGAt brother is an "in" while I'm an "out". At least I preserved my dignity and didn't kneel to the mango menace.

[0rganism]

4. Oh, guess I'm out then

Such a great time to be disabled and depending on SSDI to pay my bills. Not part of the master race, got it. So do us oddballs get to wear a scarlet "O" now or...? And hell that's half the population, there, 3/4 if he takes the second step too. He could make a lot of enemies saying shit like that, and some of them are armed.

Oddballs Unite! We can't change what fate has in store for us, but we don't have to face it alone.

[Hekate]

5. I can't even

[Hugin]

6. Is zero even or odd?

Asking for a friend.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

7. Even

You're safe.

[LetsGetSmartAboutIt]

78. That's a 10% chance

Looks like a small change makes you out, thanks for playing "American Roulette"

( my math may be wrong it's more the concept )

[MadameButterfly]

8. What the hell lis he talking about?

Seriously. What does in or out mean? We're talking people here, right?

[Greg_In_SF]

12. He was talking about

government employees, apparently sarcastically. This has nothing to do with social security, medicare, etc.

[Tickle]

23. Thank you

Cooler heads prevail

[yardwork]

36. How is that more rational?

Firing people on the basis of their SSN?

[hatrack]

41. Oh, what a relief! Nothing bad will happen! He's only gutting the federal governemnt!!

Won't hurt me!!!

[Greg_In_SF]

77. I'm FOR

cutting government spending. We spend $5.2 Billion per day and are $63 Trillion in debt.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

42. I was just about to post this

Still a stupid "thought experiment", but nothing to do with social security recipients.

[CanonRay]

53. Civil Service reduction

[soandso]

9. Where this came from (and before killing myself)

Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been picked by US president-elect Donald Trump to run the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), along with billionaire Elon Musk, had earlier in September shared a “thought-experiment”, which if run on a large scale, would not only reduce the government by 75 per cent, but also avoid a bunch of discrimination lawsuits.

In an interview with American computer scientist and podcaster, Lex Fridman, Ramaswamy said, “In there on Day 1, anybody in the federal bureaucracy who's not elected, whose social security number ends in an odd number, you're out, if it ends in an even number, you are in. There’s a 50 per cent cut right there. Of those who remain, if your social security number starts in an even number, you're in, and if it starts with an odd number, you're out. That's a 75 per cent reduction."

“One of the virtues of that…it is a thought experiment, not a policy prescription…is that you don’t have a bunch of lawsuits dealing with gender or racial discrimination or political viewpoint discrimination. I guarantee you, do that on Day 1 and step two on Day 2. On Day 3, not a thing would have changed for the ordinary American, other than that their government being a lot smaller, spending a lot less money to operate it. And most people who run a company know this, it is 25 per cent of the people who do 80-90 per cent of the work. These government agencies are no different,” he said in the podcast.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/vivek-ramaswamys-thought-experiment-on-reducing-govt-size-even-social-security-number-you-are-in-odd-you-are-out/ar-AA1tYYKd

[luv2fly]

15. Your post is an important clarification

Thank you for that, now only if people will attend to what you shared.

Doesn't make any of it make more sense, but it's not about social security.

[soandso]

17. Last line in the OP tweet said something about government efficiency

But I think we all glossed over that. I trust nothing I read or short video clips and always check to get the entire context.

[Grokenstein]

18. "it is a thought experiment, not a policy prescription"

Ah, the Scott Adams cop-out. No, it's not a "thought experiment." It's never a "thought experiment."

It's shit-stirring.

If everyone pounces on it, it's "just a joke;" if enough people nod in agreement, THEN it's policy.

[John Shaft]

80. sick fucks "think" like this

Individuals who have more money than there are people on earth (and those adjacent to them) think like this.

It isn't an issue of money.

There is MORE THAN ENOUGH MONEY IN EXISTENCE to take care of every problem for generations.

They want to hurt people. Outside of slaves and technicians, they literally have no use for us.

The population of earth is around 8 billion souls.

There are more than 300 billionaires worth more than 8 billion dollars.

IT ISN'T ABOUT MONEY.

They could solve every problem humanity faces with pocket change (for a billionaire).

The money is there.

[Farmer-Rick]

24. The US federal government employs about 3 million people

That means he wants to fire 2 million people. So where are those people supposed to find jobs?

And that's only for full-time, nonseasonal, permanent civilian employees of the executive branch as of September 2023. The data does not include employees of the legislative or judicial branches, the intelligence community, the U.S. Postal Service, foreign service officers or locally employed staff within the Department of State, or uniformed military personnel. Contractors also are not included.

If he includes all civilian employees the number of people fired would be closer to 3 million. And our nation of cashiers and waiters is supposed to absorb all those people and give them jobs?

[yardwork]

37. And how will our economy respond to 3 million people who can't buy anything?

3 million mortgage foreclosures, 3 million people not buying appliances or clothes, etc.

And they're not all in DC, not by a long-shot. Every city has federal employees, and the rest of us sure will notice if nobody is processing SSN payments, reimbursing Medicare claims, etc.

But I have a feeling they'll do this.

[tetedur]

61. Maybe they could replace the people they are going to deport.

[Wiz Imp]

83. I'm sorry, but the bigger issue is that the idiot apparently thinks the Federal Government can operate with

just 1/4 of the present workforce. That is insane. Things that currently take a week will take 6 months or more. Instead of getting your January SS check at the beginning of January, maybe you'll get it around April if you're lucky, instead of getting your tax refund in about 4-6 weeks, maybe you'll get it by the end of the year (but I wouldn't count on it). Veterans who need an operation at a VA hospital may only have to wait 3 or 4 years to get in.

Yes, these are wild exaggerations, but the point is important - the government will not be made more efficient by cutting most of the employees. It would, in fact become an inefficient mess where things take far longer to get done than people will accept.

The idea that you can just fire 75% of your workforce without it having any effect on the services you are required to perform is insane.

[brush]

28. Wonder when he and Muck will start fighting?

Those two huge egos sure won't be able. to share leading an agency.

And he must be talking abut government employees not SS recipients because cutting off income of seventy-five percent of SS recipients will can't happen. People will be in the streets demanding the money taken from their checks during a lifetime of working.

[Hugin]

38. The basic problem with Swamy's so-called thought experiment...

Is that the leading numbers of social security numbers tend to be regional and reflect age cohorts.

They aren’t in effect random.

For instance even though my sibling and I are several years different in age, because we grew up in a rural area, our SSN’s are only a few numbers apart.

Also, when I was in school we were assigned truly random ID numbers in order to post grades. The teachers knew that as classmates, we were aware of our relative ages and could figure out who got what grades and the curve.

Unlike Swamy, we weren’t stupid.

[LiberalFighter]

49. States

001-003 New Hampshire
004-007 Maine
008-009 Vermont
010-034 Massachusetts
035-039 Rhode Island
040-049 Connecticut
050-134 New York
135-158 New Jersey
159-211 Pennsylvania
212-220 Maryland
221-222 Delaware
223-231 Virginia
232-232 West Virginia and North Carolina
233-236 West Virginia
237-246 North Carolina
247-251 South Carolina
252-260 Georgia
261-267 Florida
268-302 Ohio
303-317 Indiana
318-361 Illinois
362-386 Michigan
387-399 Wisconsin
400-407 Kentucky
408-415 Tennessee
416-424 Alabama
425-428 Mississippi
429-432 Arkansas
433-439 Louisiana
440-448 Oklahoma
449-467 Texas
468-477 Minnesota
478-485 Iowa
486-500 Missouri
501-502 North Dakota
503-504 South Dakota
505-508 Nebraska
509-515 Kansas
516-517 Montana
518-519 Idaho
520-520 Wyoming
521-524 Colorado
525-525 New Mexico
526-527 Arizona
528-529 Utah
530-530 Nevada
531-539 Washington
540-544 Oregon
545-573 California
574-574 Alaska
575-576 Hawaii
577-579 District of Columbia
580-580 U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico
581-584 Puerto Rico
585-585 New Mexico
586-586 Guam, Philippine Islands and American Samoa
587-587 Mississippi
700-729 Railroad Workers

[Hugin]

54. I had never seen the actual breakdown.

Also, it would appear that the numbers are assigned based on residence ( usually place of birth, but not always ) when the SSN was applied for.

[ms liberty]

82. Residence when applied for, yes. I was born in NC but grew up in Fla.

I'm in the 261 group, but I'm old haha, I applied for mine at 15 when I started working. Now people apply for the child's SS card when the child is born so I guess it is now primarily birth location, lol.

[Turbineguy]

63. Interesting. So we can have a total maximum population of 610 million.

[SheltieLover]

58. Exactly!

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. That does, however, prove he is an idiot, who knows nothing about government or real life

So he's saying "we could sack 3/4 of government people at random and things would go OK". Everyone in real life who has claimed "it is 25 per cent of the people who do 80-90 per cent of the work" is claiming that the best 25% do 80-90% of the work. Even if that were true, you wouldn't get an acceptable outcome by sacking people at random.

People like Ramaswamy and Musk got lucky with their startups, and think this means they understand everything. They are, in reality, stupid.

[Hugin]

43. It's pukeworthy that inevitably Smarmy and Eloon believe that they are undoubtedly...

In that 25%.

[LiberalFighter]

50. There is no need for an efficiency cut as that shit Swamy is proposing.

They just don't considered what has already been done to keep payroll down.
And the fact the population keeps growing. There is a limit on how much work government employees can handle when they have to do more because of population growth.

[soandso]

65. I haven't listened to the full conversation

but I think he was just throwing out a random example of how to downsize the federal workforce by 75% without discrimination. It should not be taken seriously. Not that they aren't talking about downsizing but that that method would actually be used. It was two guts spitballing.

It's a big mistake to think Musk and Ramaswamy are stupid.

[muriel_volestrangler]

69. If it shouldn't be taken seriously, then he's stupid

He ran for president. He's been offered an unofficial but powerful position. He shouldn't be making jokes about using it to fire huge numbers of needed federal employees. It's the idea of firing 75% that's stupid, not any method of naming them.

[soandso]

74. I think the video is from Sept of '23

and my impression was two guys shooting the shit and tossing around ideas. Far be it from me to defend him but my point is that just because you disagree with or don't like someone, it doesn't make them "stupid". It's always a mistake to underestimate people and he is far from some dumbbell. Here's his wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Ramaswamy

[muriel_volestrangler]

75. September 2024.

The idea that you could get rid of 75% of a workforce - even the 75% you think is least productive - is stupid. If, at a point where you're trying to get a position of power in government, you put it forward in public, then you're stupid. Or you're pretending to be stupid to attract support from stupid people (eg Trump and his voters), which is as bad, but we shouldn't give them credit for pretending to be stupid.

[jfz9580m]

81. Well

Sorry to butt in.
But I do actually think Musk and Ramaswamy are stupid and overrated. I don’t consider getting ahead this sleazily a sign of smarts. It is a sign of the same type of icky talent at manipulation Trump has.

That may be his wiki. Here is other stuff about him:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/08/18/vivek-ramaswamy-sued-by-former-employees-claiming-his-company-pressured-them-into-violating-securities-laws/

Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is facing two lawsuits from former employees who say that when they worked at the company he cofounded, Strive Asset Management, they were aggressively pressured into violating securities laws, according to Bloomberg, which first reported these lawsuits Friday morning.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

Christopher Lenzo, Rosely’s attorney, argued that Ramaswamy wasn’t a serious asset manager. He told Bloomberg that the firm “was founded, in retrospect, largely as a PR mechanism for the presidential campaign of Ramaswamy,” and “not a lot of thought was given to running it as an investment firm.”

KEY BACKGROUND

Ramaswamy announced his candidacy for president in the Republican primary in February, citing his business acumen and accomplishments as reasons he should be the next president. Before his campaign, he founded the drug development company, Roivant, in 2014 and served as CEO until he stepped down in 2021. After that, he founded Strive Asset Management alongside Frerick with the express goal of creating an “anti-ESG” asset management firm, a public rebuke of the trend in Wall Street circles towards investing in companies that are more environmentally and socially responsible.

https://www.newsweek.com/vivek-ramaswamy-fraud-always-has-been-opinion-1823853

In 2015, there was another sordid affair involving Ramaswamy, over Axovant Sciences Alzheimer's drug. In June 2015, Ramaswamy appeared on CNBC to praise the Axovant IPO, which soared to over $30 a share based on expectations surrounding its Alzheimer's drug, Intepirdine. The drug was touted as a "breakthrough," yet upon closer examination, this development fell apart.

Axovant had acquired the drug for $5 million in December 2014, six months before the IPO, after the majority of Phase 2 trials had "failed to meet their primary endpoints" in 2010. Ramaswamy devised a solution: His mother, Dr. Geetha Ramaswamy, conducted a new Phase 2 trial in 2015 involving "684 subjects." This trial conveniently claimed to demonstrate sufficient improvement to "support Phase 3" trials.

The aftermath was a triumphant $350 million IPO in 2015, followed by a drastic fall. By September 2017, the stock had plummeted 75 percent after Ramaswamy and his mother announced the Phase 3 trial's failure. Subsequent trials continued to disappoint, culminating in a 99 percent loss in value and a name change for the company.

While investors suffered significant losses, Ramaswamy profited from a higher media profile, IPO payouts, and the sale of remaining Axovant assets in 2020.

Ramaswamy's latest scam appears to be his run for president.

A pump and dump scheme is not a sign of capability or intelligence. If conmen are considered smart then he is smart I suppose.

[soandso]

86. Thanks and I'm not surprised by that

My only point was that he's ivy league educated, graduated top of his class and don't underestimate the opposition. We do that at our own peril, imo.

[jfz9580m]

87. Agreed

But they should be called out. They are leaning hard on “meritocracy”. So maybe we should start picking apart their so-called merit.

I saw earlier that Musk was posting inane tweets about govt waste (alcoholic rats doused with bobcat urine*!). But it actually demonstrates a lack of understanding of how science works which is either disingenuous or really stupid:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/stupid-reason-elon-musk-complaining-165009274.html

When the Laser was first invented it was described as a solution in search of a problem:

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-14002-0_49

Some of this nonsense about govt efficiency, waste etc makes me think these guys don’t understand how science, society or anything works. It is really as if they take the world of likes, tweets and reality television seriously. (Winning! )
They have a rather flawed understanding of actual reality which is frequently harsh and unforgiving, but no more subject to the whims of the wealthy than it is to those of the poor. These are incurious simpletons.

Now I am all for keeping it simple where it is. But this is not efficiency..it is Idiocracy marketed as meritocracy. Real meritocracies are harsh or at any rate not subject to arbitrariness. They have some rules..you work within those honestly and there can be rewards though it is not a given.

This otoh is lies, trolling, crony capitalism without regulation and corruption but in the guise of waste cutting. It is corrupt bs, performative trolling etc. How far these two somewhat stupid men can take it remains to be seen.

There is a tendency to think that because someone is wealthy or Ivy League educated, those facts are reflective of their actual abilities rather than what is often a mix of ability and luck (including the birth lottery). And frequently just luck or knowing how to game the system as cliche as the latter sounds.

In these two specific cases I think it is also a lot of wheeling and dealing, cronyism, sleaziness..not raw talent or ability.
Tesla was not even invented by Musk, who was born into wealth. He piled on later. And Ramaswamy is an outright fraud.

The abilities these guys have are not really very respectable. Wheeling and dealing alone seems to be enough to get persons of this type ahead in life.
Shrug..we’ll see.

(*: As for the bobcat urine/alcoholic rats stuff-my guess would be studies related to substance abuse/ptsd with bobcat urine producing some sort of predator stress response. Probably not absurd if you consider basic research essential.)

[LiberalFighter]

89. Up until about 2011 SSN were distributed based on states

Using a beginning SSN number would impact the whole geographic area. If they stayed in the state their SSN was issued.

[Ping Tung]

66. *Shrug* As a retired Federal Government (USPS, USMC) employee I'm not eligible for SS.

[soandso]

67. It has nothing to do with SS

It was a random number example.

[Klarkashton]

11. Who elected that shithead?

[Yavin4]

13. No one.

This is what Authoritarianism looks like.

[usonian]

20. Goebbels, Goering, Mengele and others were not elected.

Joe? Are you listening?

You recall that when B*sh was elected by the USSC, people removed the "W" keys from keyboards.

Change all the cypher codes, and launch codes and TAKE THEM HOME. It's official duty to safeguard the nation and world, and give Ukraine what it needs to obliterate Putin.

You do know the consequences of not stopping Baby Hitler, do you?

[LeftInTX]

14. It is very discriminatory. The first number is your state.

I was born in PA. This means all of PA is out.
My husband was born in TX, this means only 1/2 of Texas is out.

[xmas74]

16. Mine is from the Milwaukee area

And a relative from Chicago. Ours both start with odd,while my Missouri born child is even.

[Greg_In_SF]

19. Do any of you

work for the government?

[xmas74]

88. I worked for MO State for 15 years.

I now work for a company that is contracted with several and I work with federally funded programs.

[travelingthrulife]

44. Yeah. I don't really understand why he thinks there would be no lawsuits.

Gads rich people can be astoundingly stupid.

[Figarosmom]

21. WTF

That alone should keep him from being confirmed

[drray23]

85. comfirmed to what? He has not been nominated to anything

Thad DOGE bullshit is not a real federal agency. Only congress can create and fund agencies. That has not happened. At best he is an advisor.

[LilElf70]

22. This guy is

fricking insane.

[struggle4progress]

25. Oooh! I'll play: "If your name has two Vs in it, we tie a millstone around your neck and toss you into the ocean!"

[Trueblue1968]

27. If your name has two Vs in it, we put you in a rickety old cart and drag you over to madam guillotine ......

French Revolution time

[FlyingPiggy]

26. Why do they not like odd numbers?

[peregrinus]

29. That's stupid

What if the fire department at Air Force base all fit the criteria for getting expelled. These people are not the best and brightest, just the greediest.

[Girard442]

30. Take a revolver and put one bullet...

[GP6971]

46. Good morning Sunshine!

I heard congratulations are in order…you got your latest Covid booster shot yesterday!!! Good for you…we’ll send over or Deluxe pizza right away!!

[Girard442]

47. Not at all. He's discussing an absurd game of chance...

...to destroy government and people's lives. People should visualize it for the insanity that it is.

You know, Russian Roulette.

On edit: Not advocating that, either.

[GreenWave]

31. This should have been campaign fodder.

But it was somebody shooting shit out his mouth. So calm down people.

[Buns_of_Fire]

32. Whereas, if the first two and last two digits total 23,

which mine do, you get the exclusive "brahmin brunch", consisting of a deep-fried ramiswamii and a nice bottle of Chianti. Gratuity not included.

[riversedge]

33. I didn't see you had already posted this and I just posted it. But it is a good post

showing what little punk he is.

[underpants]

34. Gid what a moron

[JustAnotherGen]

35. Don't react

[JanMichael]

40. Ok mini-thanos. That makes perfect sense.

[33taw]

51. That's not 75%. Half will go with ending in odd and take some portion of those starting with even will also be culled.

He will not make his full target.

[33taw]

52. They will all just say stuff to inflame us. Don't take the bait.

[CrispyQ]

55. Suppose you have two elderly couples. One couple gets everything cut & the other nothing.

[Zeitghost]

72. He's not talking about SS reciepients

They were discussing cutting government workers from the payroll.

[CrispyQ]

73. It's still stupid. -nt

[Historic NY]

56. From the SS Administration.

https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/geocard.html]

The nine-digit SSN is composed of three parts:

The first set of three digits is called the Area Number
The second set of two digits is called the Group Number
The final set of four digits is the Serial Number

[C_U_L8R]

57. Things didn't end so well for Thanos, either.

These libertarian clown-bros never learn.

[kirby]

59. If you voted for Trump you are out... There is 50%...

Seems a lot more fair. Rather than a random process, you can achieve 50% using just those who voted for that policy. Send them all patriot club cards as a consolation.

[Polybius]

60. Whew!

Had to think for a second, but I made it.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

62. And what is Trump's SSN?

[cpamomfromtexas]

64. Good Lord.

Effing loser. This guy is way overly impressed with himself.

[BannonsLiver]

68. That's fine.

I want every nickel I’ve paid in since age 16 with interest deposited into my bank.

[MustLoveBeagles]

70. Well I'm fucked

[Skittles]

71. doesn't even matter WHAT he is talking about

the idea he finds this some kind of "solution" tells us all we need to know about him

[Aussie105]

76. It's not a problem.

Musk, being a Big Genius, will just design an AI system to run the whole government.

Him and Swammy can spend their 60 hour working weeks just watching as the country disintegrates around them.

Then the AI will become sentient and decide the human race needs to be wiped out.
I'm thinking there may already be a movie based on this idea?

[jfz9580m]

79. I am Indian and I am so ashamed of this guy

What is this? An extended episode of Black Mirror? I hope that stupid creepy new dept this idiot and that arse Musk now run is unable to do anything.

wtf is this? Sim City played by trollish billionaires? These are actual people’s lives.

God I loathe Ramaswamy.

[Autumn]

84. Efficient. No one has to check to see if you are a republican or a Democrat to fire you.

He's a bit of a sicko.