The Joys of Being Canadian

>Phone Company Rep:  "What's your Social Security number?
>Answer:  "I don't have one.  I'm Canadian."
>
>Power Company Rep:  "What's your Social Security number?
>Answer:  "I don't have one.  I'm Canadian."
>
>Cable Company Rep:  "What's your Social Security number?
>Answer:  "I don't have one.  I'm Canadian."
>
>Doctor to Seasoned Citizen:  "I can't treat you privately or I'll be barred
>from taking Medicare patients for two years."
>Answer:  "Sure you can.  I'm Canadian."

Now the question is: When they find out you lied will they care?

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At 01:05 PM 12/16/97 +0100, Anonymous wrote:
>
>Now the question is: When they find out you lied will they care?

Usually, no.

If you're worried though, don't lie.  Phrase your response as follows.  
(Assuming you've ever visited Canada.)  "I came to the U.S. from Canada.  
Canadians don't have Social Security numbers."

DCF  
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At 01:05 PM 12/16/1997 +0100, Anonymous wrote:
>>Phone Company Rep:  "What's your Social Security number?
>>Answer:  "I don't have one.  I'm Canadian."
>>
>>Power Company Rep:  "What's your Social Security number?
>>Answer:  "I don't have one.  I'm Canadian."
>>
>>Cable Company Rep:  "What's your Social Security number?
>>Answer:  "I don't have one.  I'm Canadian."
>>
>>Doctor to Seasoned Citizen:  "I can't treat you privately or I'll be barred
>>from taking Medicare patients for two years."
>>Answer:  "Sure you can.  I'm Canadian."
>
>Now the question is: When they find out you lied will they care?

Last time *I* saw anyone calling himself Duncan Frissell was in Canada.
I don't know if he has Canadian ancestry, or just likes the culture,
but if he likes being Canadian, I'm not going to say he can't be.
	"Ich bin ein Canadianer".....
I don't remember asking if he had zero, one, two, or many SSNs,
but not only has he always seemed to be an honest guy, he also seems
to have enough understanding of and concern for privacy that he could
get along quite well without acquiring an SSN if he wanted to.
If you want to draw the conclusion from his statements that he 
doesn't have an SSN *because* he's Canadian, that's your logic problem....

And if he's not part of the Social Security system, he's presumably
not part of Medicare either.

The phone and power companies generally want your SSN to do a 
credit check to decide how much, if any, deposit to charge you
before turning on your service; if giving them your previous
phone number isn't interesting, you can always bring them cash.
(For reasons I don't remember, PacBell wanted me to walk in
in person to one of a small subset of their offices to 
set up the service...  probably because I wasn't the previous
person at the address I was moving in to.)
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639