neverThoughtAnEpochErrorWouldBeCalledFraudFromTheResoluteDesk
Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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I’m not sure that’s completely correct. ISO 8601 is not an epoch format that uses a single integer; It’s a representation of the Gregorian calendar. I also couldn’t find information on any system using 1875 as an epoch. Wikipedia has a [list of common epoch dates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch_(computing)#Notable_epoch_dates_in_computing), and none of them are 1875.
Elon is still an idiot, but fighting disinformation with disinformation is not the move.
I hate people who just scream out these “shocking revelations” bit by bit instead of issuing a comprehensive report. Unfortunately, social media has no place for those who can not condense their message to five sentences at a time.
This literally doesn’t make sense. The iso standard is for *display* of dates, not storage, and I can’t find anything referencing COBOL or anything else using 1871 as an epoc.
COBONED
This post is actual garbage and complete misinformation.
1. ISO8601 has nothing to do with epochs, it’s just a format for communicating dates and times.
2. I don’t think there’s any programming language/system that bases their epoch in 1875.
3. COBOL does have data types for dates and times.
Stop upvoting screenshots of people just lying without verifying anything. You’re all better than this.
Genuine question: why would something as important as the social security database put in unknown birthdates like that when they have to be known to make sure someone is of age to collect social security?
COBOL does not use that epoch date…
“OMG!!! It’s so bad what’s been happening to our country and **your money**!”, said the millionaire…
Lmao love the posts calling other people stupid that actually believe this is true.
The 1875 cobol epoch. Lmao…
My cousin collected my dead uncle’s social security checks for about 15 years after he passed away. He was “108” collecting social security checks. They found out because she called the bank to complain about how long the checks were taking to hit her account.
But but but Musk is a genius
I’ve never encountered this kind of date (even though I did take an “object-oriented COBOL” elective at college in the 1990s) and it sure has nothing to do with ISO 8601 but I have encountered [a minimum date of 1/1/1753](https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/differences-date-mapping-between-filenet-imaging-services-and-filenet-content-engine) in older IBM software.
A system that similarly stores dates as “days since 1/1/1970” as a signed 16-bit integer (-32768 through 32767) would get you a date range starting in April, 1880. That’s only 145 years but close enough to Elmo’s claim. Like I said, I don’t have a name for this, but it does sound like something a person in the 1970 would come up with.
/srs
Looking at DT Jr’s tweet, something interesting I’ve noticed about how so many MAGA people speak is that it’s worded very simply, vaguely, and uses buzzwords to evoke emotions. “OMG!! They’re wasting your money!!” Or “no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness!” (From a speaker from the WH when talking about slashing funding).
Those who are young and still working to develop their political opinions, as well as those who are older and are looking to have their opinions validated, will see this and be immediately fed an emotion and the simple words they are being told to think. Even if they fundamentally disagree with the concepts, it’s a seed now planted.
It comes off as if you are talking to a friend. I know a lot of rural republicans hate how politicians use words outside of the voters regular vocabulary, which can make concepts feel inaccessible.
This is something I see severely lacking for democratic career politicians, and as much as I admire that they don’t want to stoop that low, I think they’re fighting a losing battle by not adopting the same tactics. It’s sad to see
A simple google search shows that [COBOL’s epoch starts in 1600](https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.4.0?topic=services-date-limits). Also the ISO-8601 standard specifies storing dates as strings, i.e. `2025-02-14`
Maybe we should stop giving Elon the answers
To be fair, if people with unknown birthdays are collecting Social Security, isn’t that basically just as bad? The implication is that either way, people with missing data (social security starts paying out based on your birthday) are being paid…
And like that (*snaps fingers), everyone is an expert DBA.
This tech timeline is going down the idiocracy route.
Even if this is true why are they paying people without a date of birth at all?
You can tell Musk’s DOGE people are inexperienced by the fact that they are freaking out over every little thing that comes up they don’t understand. A good senior engineer would NOT have these reactions. As for Musk, I just assume he’s intentionally using these freakouts to whip Trump’s base into a frenzy and legitimize their conspiracy theories.
It is 100% possible that someone who was born 150 years ago is still the taxpayer receiving Social Security benefits today. Old Husband->young wife->disabled child who is now retirement social security age.
Born in 1875, died in 1955. Married a younger bridge in 1940, younger bridge never worked, collected benefits under husband who worked till the late 1940s. Younger bridge remarried later in life, had a special needs child. special needs child was born in 1972-1973, is now themselves 62 years old. Has never worked. Is covered under fathers survivor benefits as the adult disabled child of qualified benefit.
The taxpayer record associated to that current recipient would be the mothers deceased husband, born in 1875, 150 years ago.
Also, a more common scenario: a typo was made. The benefit is still owed even if the system has bad data in it.
I am still a COBOL development IT manager and there is nothing like this that I have ever experienced. This sounds like a data integrity issue though and is normal in systems this large that have had input over generations.
The whole SS stuff coming from Musk.
For instance, shock that a SSN isn’t unique in the db.
There’s a reason for that. A legal reason. When SS was first created there was so many much resistance to people being assigned an identity number that it almost scuttled the whole program. A SSN is not allowed to be a unique identifier of a person.
Congress could change that, but it would take a massive amount of effort to convert a SSN into a unique identifier.
No COBOL, no SQL, what do they do?
It being essentialy a null value doesnt make it better???
COBOL most certainly does have a DATE type
It’s 1875 because that was when COBOL was invented.
Here’s a more simple answer, it’s probably bullshit and isn’t happening at all.
The 150 year old person being paid could also be legit. Survivorship benefits are a thing. If a woman married someone when she was 18 and he was 90, she could be 78 now and he’d be 150 and she’d still be collecting his social security.
Conservatives have treated marriage as so sacrosanct that this kind of “fraud” has been permitted for a long time (since social securities inception?).
Also, the very first person to get paid out was born in 1974 which is, conspicuously, 150 years ago. Maybe they didn’t realize the entire history was in the database?
Either way, this is hysterical shit that I deal with from people who aren’t intellectually curious or discerning. It’s also the kind of thing I’d view negatively in a subordinate. Coming from the world’s richest man it just becomes satire.
On a side note, we now have three plausible reasons for a 150 year old person showing up in the database. Maybe they should check those out before firing off this bullshit?
This post is retarded on more levels than one
The current SSA database format was created in 1982. ISO 8601 wasn’t published until 1988. I don’t think OP’s statement is true.
Even if it were true, why the hell are we sending SS checks to people who aren’t properly entered into the system?
That’s why real audits involve lots of people, take a long time, and make sure they understand every detail.
Cluelessly poking around a database is not an audit. It‘s almost guaranteed to deliver completely wrong results.
That’s what you get when you hire a quack squad of zoomers who don’t have the experience to know shit like this. Full on Dunning-Kruger inferences, guiding the hand of the shadow-president. It’s fucking mind-blowing.
Why are so many people born January 1, 1970???
Posting misinformation online results in you getting corrected. Got him to the right answer faster than researching it himself.
Meanwhile Musk: that $400m is mine and I deserve all of it.
You could say his team is pretty COBOLed together
Genuine question. Has DOGE released any actual evidence of massive fraud? Any reports? Any detail other than inflammatory claims? You’d think they have a team of lawyers building cases if there was massive fraud going on.
It’s the same bullshit as “But my nephew who fixed my computer told me this and he knows everything about computers” that IT people constantly hear.
The real question now – does Musk know anything IT related at all? I highly doubt it…
A-ha! So it runs on COBOL, not SQL! Just like the Elon said the other day /s