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all of his 7,227 possessions

Interesting, if he committed to the concept. Did he first give the truly important items to family members so they didn't qualify as "his" possessions or did he actually destroy all of his identification, his birth certificate?

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At least in California your birth certificate is only a certified copy of a document the county has. As long as you have a living parent they can get a valid copy for you to bootstrap your identity recreation project. Once you have the birth certificate you should be able to get a new ID card, then get a replacement ssn card, etc.

Technically he could argue that identification documents belong to the government, not to him?

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