Nowadays, everyone's trying to get answers out of AI. Ask it to plan a vacation, write a press release, fix a résumé—it'll do all that. But what about when you ask economic questions?

Here's what happened when ChatGPT was asked:

What would happen if Elon Musk had to pay Social Security taxes on all his income for an entire year?

The AI language model, trained on information up to 2024, responded with a detailed look at how the U.S. Social Security tax system works—and what kind of effect one billionaire could have if that system were adjusted.

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Here's the full response from ChatGPT:

"If Elon Musk had to pay Social Security taxes on all his income for an entire year, the Social Security system would get a huge, one-time cash injection—but it wouldn't fundamentally change how the system works long term. Here's why:

First, the system today has a cap.

As of 2025, Social Security taxes only apply to the first $168,600 of earned income. Anything beyond that? It's not taxed for Social Security. This cap exists because Social Security benefits are also capped—it's designed as a safety net, not a high-roller retirement plan.

Elon Musk's income? We're talking billions.

Depending on the year, Elon's income from stock options, Tesla compensation packages, or gains from selling shares can hit the hundreds of millions or even billions. If every dollar he earned was taxed at the Social Security rate (12.4%), here's a rough idea:

Let's say he made $3 billion in one year, which is actually conservative for him in some years:

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For comparison, the average American pays maybe $9,000 in Social Security taxes per year. So Elon alone could pay as much as 41,000 people combined.

What would actually happen?

If Musk paid Social Security taxes on his full income for a year, it'd be a massive one-time bonus to the system—maybe hundreds of millions of dollars—but it wouldn't solve the bigger issue of long-term funding. Still, it would definitely shake up the conversation around tax fairness and reform."

But how does that compare to what actual labor economists say?

In an interview with Bloomberg, labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci broke down a similar scenario. She estimated that if Musk paid Social Security taxes not just on his salary but also on portions of his capital gains:

"It would save 1/20 of the deficit in Social Security."

That's 5% of the total projected shortfall—attributed to just one individual.

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She then expanded the idea:

"Imagine broadening that out to maybe 20,000 other people. This is not very much—you don't have to raise the tax rate to any perceptible amount. But just helping share in the funding of Social Security, we could solve that problem overnight."

Ghilarducci's point reflects a growing conversation among economists and policymakers: taxing a broader share of income—especially among the highest earners—could make a meaningful dent in the system's shortfall.

And that shortfall isn't some distant problem. According to the 2025 Trustees' Report, the primary trust fund for old-age and survivors benefits is projected to be depleted by 2033. Once that happens, the broader Social Security system is expected to become insolvent just one year later, in 2034. If Congress takes no action before then, current law would force an automatic reduction in benefits by roughly 20% across the board.

That's not a theoretical concern—it would affect millions of retirees, future retirees, and anyone relying on Social Security to cover basic expenses in their later years. It also raises the stakes in conversations about whether to raise the income cap, increase taxes, adjust benefits, or some combination of all three.

While ChatGPT emphasizes that one person alone couldn't fix Social Security, both the model and economists agree: even modest changes at the top could make a measurable difference.

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