In November 1936, the U.S. government began the immense task of issuing Social Security Numbers (SSNs) to millions of Americans. It was a foundational administrative task for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, establishing a system designed to provide financial security for the nation's...

For most of human history, life was divided into two fundamental stages: childhood and adulthood. A child was someone dependent on their parents, and an adult was someone who contributed to the economy, regardless of their chronological age. The transition between these two stages...