Not applying for a SSN doesn't remove the requirement to pay FICA taxes. There's only a specific list of allowed exemptions.

yeah actually, it isn't a conspiracy theory but more like cultural critical theory, the book Seeing Like a State, is a great read about how the state works to transform the natural world into a world that can be quantified and managed by bureaucracy.

One of it's most interesting examples is how early modern governments reformed agricultural practices, not to raise productivity levels but to make them more easily measured and therefore taxed.