It’s a soggy piece of cardboard that “they” give you at birth and you have to hold onto it with your tiny baby hand, and then you have to keep it until you’re like 90 years old. If this soggy, easy to lose or destroy card gets lost or destroyed you have to prove to the magically animated statue of Abraham Lincoln himself that you’re American to get a replacement.

This card is explicitly not an ID card, but the only thing it ever gets used for is as an ID card.

Looks like that piece of paper containing an American’s social security number

Yea we do. Social security number card. You use those, a birth certificate, drivers license, and two pieces of reputable mail (for proof of existence and address) to do most big ticket purchases or verify yourself before cars, houses, clearances, update drivers license. Etc…etc…