Bigger Numbers

We need bigger numbers. The United States uses a 9 digit taxpayer ID number. Yet, this is not enough. Americans lose their ID number when they die so that new people can use their ID number. So many people have moved to our large cities that telephone area codes are filling up and, for the more populous cities, area codes no longer have a dedicated area code. 

I think that the credit card companies have the right idea in using sixteen digits. We (all seven billion people) should adopt sixteen digit numbers. That's about ninety thousand numbers for every person who ever lived. No one, living or dead, would ever have to share an ID number with anyone else.