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Current Events » in reply to Question - where did you come up with your $20 trillion figure

re: Question - where did you come up with your $20 trillion figure
Tom Brosz — (archived)

As for means testing, what would be the criteria for denying someone who has paid in tens of thousands of dollars into SS any payout? Would it be anyone who has a private 401K or other pension over a certain amount, or something else? Would it be based on their net worth at retirement, leading to possible problems in areas with high housing costs where a person could be "house rich but asset poor"?

The Internal Revenue Service has made a fine art out of deciding what your income is, and how your assets affect it. Figuring out methods of means testing would not be that difficult.

I assume that capital assets would not be included unless they were realized, same as normal income tax. I also assume that the value of a 401K would not be included, but that payouts (which you legally HAVE to take after retirement age) would.

And yes, this means that all the money you put into the system ends up in someone else's pocket besides yours. Since the regular income tax has been doing this for years without creating any kind of uprising, what's the difference?

It's highly unlikely that the means testing would be applied to any current retirees, or even those who are going to retire in the near future.

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