Tech titan and billionaire Elon Musk has reiterated his outlandish assertion that the US government is still doling out funds to potentially deceased centenarians, claiming that millions aged 100 – 150 are on the books.
Flaring up social media late Sunday night with his contentious claim, the SpaceX head honcho tweeted: « According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE, » alongside what appeared to be an Excel spreadsheet detailed with age brackets and corresponding beneficiaries’ counts.
Injecting a dash of humour into the discourse, Musk suggested: « Maybe Twilight is real, and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security, » with two laughing emojis, alluding to the famed vampire-themed novel series.
The data Musk brandished suggests an improbable scenario with over 20 million individuals purportedly clocked at 100 years or older, including a staggering 3.9 million between the ages of 130-139.
Additionally, more than 3.5 million names fell within the 140-149 range, and 1.3 million reportedly between 150-159—a stark contrast to the U.S. Census Bureau statistics, which counted about 335 million U.S. residents in 2020, with those over 100 years old numbering just beyond 80,000.
As the controversial post divided the internet, one defiant commentator challenged Musk’s arithmetic, pointing out that his touted figures totaled an impossible 394,943,364—far exceeding the nation’s population.
Elon Musk hit back, stating: « Yes, there are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA. This might be the biggest fraud in history, » reports The Mirror US.
Another individual questioned the data, saying: « Using your own data… Why are people under the age of retirement included on this list? We have zero through 20 year olds by the millions on this list. This is a very confusing presentation of data. I’m not suggesting it’s false or incorrect; I’m just saying it lacks context and is confusing. »
A third person queried: « How do you collect SS at ages 0-9, » while a fourth jested: « I wanna meet that 360-369-year-old fella, »
Other users meanwhile, were quick to concur with the head of the Department of Government Efficiency’s suspicions of fraud.
One person declared: « This is a massive fraud red flag. Over 20M ‘people’ listed as 100+ years old in SS database? Time for a serious audit. Either we’ve got immortals gaming the system or some major data integrity issues. »
Another commented: « This has the potential to be the biggest fraud in US history. If DOGE’s numbers are right, $522B-1/3 of ALL spending on Social Security each year-is fraudulent. »
Musk’s tweet follows his previous comments about the fraud made while standing next to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
He told reporters last week: « Just a cursory examination of Social Security and we’ve got people in there that are about 150 years old. Now, do you know anyone that’s 150? I don’t. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records; they’re missing out. »
He further commented, « So, you know, that’s the case where, like, I think they’re probably dead, is my guess, or they should be very famous. One of the two. »
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