>Regardless of the wisdom of this plan, ask your friend where you will
>get the money to issue the check. If it's "merely" a difference
>accounting, like having the money in savings and transferring it into
>checking, then it should be easy to find $15 trillion. Oh, and no
>levying a one-time $50,000 tax on everyone in the US. Of course, it's
>not "merely" a difference in accounting -- the $15 trillion you're
>talking about doesn't exist anywhere except as a claim on revenues of
>the US Government -- revenues which are entirely in the future.
But pensions in funds are likewise a claim on revenues, entirely in the future. The beneficiaries aren't entitled to draw on them until retirement.
If they all demanded the cash now, the same sticky situation would arise whether pensions are private, or government.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell tas