I have long stated that peaceful separation is the correct path. That the biggest effort should be making this transition happen.
I think the most practical way to do this is to start transferring power from the Federal government to the States. To the point where the Federal government is limited by a two thirds vote of State governments.
I don’t think a cost benefit can be understood because the process of sorting could result in the exact outcome as not sorting. It is more of an exercise in trying to estimate probabilities which is also guess work.
The truth is that practically all of us (US citizens) have a standard of living and wealth that is higher than it should be. A significant change in the standard of living of a significant portion of the US population can result in what you are concerned about. Therefore, an attempt to change the system could be (probably would be) the trigger for massive economic change.
For numerous reasons the US is not nearly as wealthy as it appears or as the vast majority of citizens think. One reason that we think wealth is units of US dollars when wealth is really the amount of goods and services you can provide.
One reason things are overvalued is the intangible value of the legacy of having a very successful economic system and stable political system which led to the USD being the worlds reserve currency and the power of the US armed forces.
The examples of inflated wealth are numerous. The most recent reminder for me was this recent post by @Citizen_bitcoin.
In California there are people that cannot afford to pay the property tax nor the insurance on the their homes because the value is so high. How many Californians could not pay the property tax on the current value of their homes? There is no way homes can be valued such that a person cannot afford 1/2 of 1% for insurance.
The entire US bond market is probably overvalued (interest rates are low) and the US government interest on those bonds is already a significant portion of the budget. Interest rates are impacted by political stability and economic prosperity of a nation (the legacy part). I also believe the demand for the US debt is propped up by the US government forcing entities like banks and retirement funds to hold that debt as well as by actions of the Fed and Treasury.
If the interest rate on US government debt is significantly lower than it would be due to manipulations as noted, then the stock market value is significantly higher than it should be.
If the US government cannot afford its debt, it cannot afford to provide the support it does for farming. Without US government support land value is much lower. (They also cannot afford to pay for the social security, Medicaid, Medicare and department of war.)
Basically everything we call an asset is overvalued. Any disruption to that system that causes a significant correction could lead to a depression or hyper inflation.
Remember that a change in home values that was less than double digits resulted in what our betters said would be the end of the world. That is an extraordinarily fragile system.