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Comment by javajosh | Hacker News Reader

I was prepared to think that before reading the article. However, after reading it, I understand:

Reversing the man's death status will hurt innocent people badly. In particular, it would force his abandoned wife and children to pay back the Social Security benefits they claimed after he disappeared.

The real problem is with the Social Security Administration rules. They should not force the woman and her children to give back the money. I suppose the ideal situation is that the man is dead as far as the SSA is concerned.

Honestly, I am totally unsympathetic with this man. He abandoned his family. He abandoned them and was dead to them. He should have just stayed dead. No driver's license? Tough shit, asshole.

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I don't see how you are blaming the government for this. Why not just give out the same social security benefit any old time to anyone who asks? That's what you're going to do when you formalize this as a loophole for getting benefits.

When someone is discovered alive, obviously that should automatically reverse their 'death status' - not to mention that they do not forfeit rights as a citizen because they were thought dead.

Instead of even thinking about the legal issues you are making this about your own emotional reaction to what a bad man he is and how bad the government supposedly is.

I don't think I'd characterize it as a loophole per se, since it requires being legally declared dead in the first place.

That is a pretty big hurdle to have to jump through!

Agreed. My father was in the reverse situation, where he spent several months legally alive in the coroner's office. We're still running into issues with agencies refusing to believe that he passed away.

Any bets he wants his SS# reinstated so he can try to draw benefits?

He seems likely to be roughly about that age now... and he's apparently done just fine for many, many years without a SS# or drivers license, so I'm wondering what exactly is precipitating this (likely high-risk request) and collecting SS benefits is what's staring at me.

It might be better for him to really start over from scratch. If he's alive, then doesn't he also have to pay his debts and his child support again?

Yes... but he's actually, you know, alive

Maybe he is an asshole, maybe he just wanted to run away and start a new life, maybe he's changed after 20 years, who knows. The government shouldn't be in a position to judge that he doesn't deserve a license just because they don't like him.

If he is proven to be alive then the keeping him legally dead is obviously absurd.

You kind of missed a point, he's not being judged because he's not liked. He's being judged on the fact that he ran out on his financial responsibility and left the government to foot the bill.

His return means that his ex-wife has to pay back the money then claim it from him. Which he'll probably never pay because he doesn't have it either.

Ideally the government should ask the man to pay back the money, the judge would have no issue granting his request then.

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