Tag: Middle Class

Would Your Child Like To Go To A Great School?

Just a little FYI for those considering a higher education for their children.

My granddaughter will be attending Univ of New Orleans this fall….and it will be a tough nut for my daughter to crack and that got me to thinking about ways that kids could lessen the costs.

We all want what is best for our children and that includes to go to a good college….but thanks to many factors that is becoming only a dream….if you are middle class then the best you can hope for is a local community college and hope something breaks so they can move on.

But did you know that there are 15 great universities that offer free tuition to middle class families?

No?

Well here they are….

With the shocking cost of college tuition these days, many hoping to earn a degree are wondering if it’s worth it, or even fiscally possible.

Fortunately, more elite colleges have been adjusting their policies to cover tuition for middle-class students, making college possible for more Americans (and creating a way to keep more cash in your wallet while attending).

Here are 15 highly respected schools that offer free degrees for middle-class students.

Brandeis University

Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, students whose families make less than $75,000 annually will receive total grants and scholarships that cover the cost of full tuition at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

Students whose families earn less than $200,000 will receive grants and scholarships to cover 50% of their tuition.

Brown University

At the famed New England Ivy, Brown University students whose families earn less than $125,000 annually can expect to have their full tuition covered.

Students whose families earn less than $60,000 annually will have their tuition, plus room, board, and other expenses, covered through scholarships.

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon’s CMU Pathway Program, which will go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year, will fully cover tuition for students whose families earn $75,000 or less annually.

Columbia University

Students who land an acceptance letter from prestigious Columbia University in New York City will also be able to secure free tuition if their family earns less than $150,000 annually.

Dartmouth College

Students whose families make less than $125,000 annually will receive a financial aid package at Dartmouth that requires no parent contribution.

Students may be expected to contribute to tuition based on jobs they hold during the summer or school year, but full needs will be met without the students having to take out loans.

Duke University

In the fall of 2023, Duke began covering full tuition for undergraduate students from North and South Carolina whose family incomes were $150,000 or less annually.

For admitted students from the Carolinas whose families earn less than $65,000, the school will cover tuition through grants, as well as financial assistance without student loans for housing, meals, and other college expenses.

Harvard University

Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, students accepted to Harvard can attend for free if their families earn $200,000 or less annually. These students qualify for “Free Tuition Plus,” which covers tuition and may offer additional financial aid for things like fees and housing based on individual needs.

Students whose families earn less than $100,000 qualify for free tuition, fees, food, housing, and more.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

MIT will begin allowing students with family incomes less than $200,000 to attend for free beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. The cost of tuition will be covered by grants and scholarships.

New York University

Starting in the 2024-2025 school year, The NYU Promise program ensured that all undergraduate students who started as first-year students on the New York campus would have their tuition covered if their families earned less than $100,000 annually.

Princeton University

Back in the fall of 2023, Princeton upgraded its financial aid program to cover the full tuition, room, and board through grants for students whose families earn less than $100,000 annually.

It was the first university in the U.S. to eliminate loans from its aid packages, and in the most recent school year, all families with annual incomes up to $180,000 qualified for some sort of aid.

Stanford University

At Stanford, accepted students whose families earn less than $150,000 annually qualify to have their full tuition covered. If a student’s family earns less than $100,000, the school covers room and board as well.

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago takes it one step further, offering free tuition to students whose families earn less than $125,000 per year and those who are the first in their families to attend college.

If a student’s family earns less than $60,000 annually, they can expect tuition, fees, housing, and meals to be covered.

University of Michigan

Students who qualify for in-state tuition and have a family income of $125,000 or less will qualify to have their tuition and university fees covered at the University of Michigan starting in fall 2025. Housing, meals, and other expenses are not covered under the new program.

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is another top-notch school moving to make Ivy League education accessible to students in the 2025-2026 school year.

Starting in the fall, the school will offer full tuition scholarships to students whose families make $200,000 or less per year. They also removed a home equity evaluation from the financial aid assessment process.

University of Texas

In late 2024, schools in the University of Texas system agreed to cover the full tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students whose families earn $100,000 or less.

The rules will go into effect in the fall 2025 semester, and students whose families earn $125,000 or less may qualify for tuition support as well.

Please if interested check out the schools…..I am sure there will be a criteria for this program so check closely……and that does not mean the entire education will be free….so far just the tuition.

Good luck.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–02May24

Here is something, well a couple of somethings, to think about as you go about your busy day.

Back in the day the bright future that parents dreamed of was to make enough money to enter into the Middle Class…well that dream has been dashed by greed and corrupt government.

Here are the things that the Middle Class will not be able to afford….

In recent years, economic shifts have reshaped the financial landscape for the middle class. From housing to education, many things that were once considered attainable are now out of reach for many middle-class families. Here are five key areas where the middle class is feeling the pinch.

Homeownership

For generations, owning a home was a cornerstone of the middle-class dream. However, with housing prices skyrocketing in many areas, this dream is becoming increasingly elusive. The cost of buying a house has significantly outpaced income growth. In many cities, even a modest home is now beyond the reach of a typical middle-class family. This shift has forced many to either stay in rental properties or move to less expensive areas, often far from their workplaces or families.

https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/wealth/things-the-middle-class-cant-afford-anymore/

On that list is savings for retirement….people are being priced out of retirement….

More than one-quarter of US adults over age 50 say they expect to never retire, and 70% are concerned about prices rising faster than their income, an AARP survey finds. About 1 in 4 have no retirement savings, according to research released Wednesday by the organization that shows how an aging America is worrying more about how to make ends meet—even as economists say the US economy has all but achieved a soft landing after two years of record inflation. Everyday expenses and housing costs, including rent and mortgage payments, are the biggest reasons people are unable to save for retirement, the AP reports.

The data will matter this election year as Democratic President Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump try to win support from older Americans, who historically turn out in high numbers. AARP’s study, based on interviews with more than 8,000 people in coordination with the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, finds that one-third of older adults carry a credit card balance of more than $10,000 and that 12% have a balance of $20,000 or more. Additionally, 37% are worried about meeting basic living costs such as food and housing. “Far too many people lack access to retirement savings options and this, coupled with higher prices, is making it increasingly hard for people to choose when to retire,” said AARP’s Indira Venkateswaran.

The share of people older than 50 who say they do not expect to retire has steadily increased. It was 23% in January 2022 and 24% that July, according to the study, which is conducted twice a year. “We are seeing an expansion of older workers staying in the workforce,” said David John of the AARP Public Policy Institute. The survey showed 33% of respondents older than 50 believe their finances will be better in a year. A looming issue that will affect the ability to retire is the financial health of Social Security and Medicare. The latest annual report from trustees says the financial safety nets will run short of money to pay full benefits within a decade.

But not to worry the president has told us the economy is strong….that may be the case but not for everyone.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–16Apr24

I remember the day when people strive to reach the middle class….that meant that all was well and your family could progress along with a descent living and such.

These days we have excellent news….the markets are doing relatively good, wages are up and jobs are there for the taking….and all this means the middle class is flourishing, right?

On paper and in the economic news all indicators are good or so we are told daily…..but how true is the picture that the media paints nightly?

Prices!

While some indicators are looking good (if you are an investor) the reality is that prices are killing the middle class.

A new study shows just how bad it can get….in 5 years there are essentials that the middle class may not be able to afford.

ABC News has just reported that “Consumer prices rose 3.5% in March compared to a year ago, accelerating markedly from the previous month and reversing some of the progress achieved in a two-year fight to cool inflation, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed.”

While gasoline and housing continue to remain high, “Core inflation — a closely watched measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices — increased 3.8% over the year ending in March, holding steady from the previous month, the data showed.”

These numbers, which not everyone understands, affect the average American who, no matter the reason, is faced with increasingly high prices, stagnant wages, and basic needs spiraling out of reach. America’s middle class is being squeezed, and what used to be the hallmark of the American middle class and the American dream is becoming increasingly unaffordable. If things don’t change, the average middle-class American won’t be able to afford these things in the next 5 years.

5 Things the Middle Class Won’t Be Able To Afford in 5 Years Due to Inflation

And the government does NOTHING!

Basically we will let the markets decide who eats and who does not.

Is this what you signed up for?

Congress spends all their time working on BS situations while the people of this country slowly die of inaction.

For once the people nee4d to start thinking about the country and not some far flung personality that is all mouth or all promises and no action.

Your neighbor needs you to pay attention.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Murder Of The Middle Class

There is a slow and torturous murder being inflicted on the Middle Class in this country.

Since the last half of the 20th century the Middle Class has been struggling to maintain the position and the life that they have been enjoying since the invention of the Middle Class….and sadly it is a losing battle.

Corporations have been chipping away at the Middle Class status with the help of the government….and it began in earnest with the election of Reagan in 1980.

Forty years ago, on August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers and barred them from ever working again for the federal government. By October of that year, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO, the union that had called the strike, had been decertified and lay in ruins. The careers of most of the individual strikers were similarly dead: While Bill Clinton lifted Reagan’s ban on strikers in 1993, fewer than 10 percent were ever rehired by the Federal Aviation Administration.

PATCO was dominated by Vietnam War-era veterans who’d learned air traffic control in the military and were one of a vanishingly small number of unions to endorse Reagan in 1980, thereby scoring one of the greatest own goals in political history. It’s easy to imagine strikers expressing the same sentiments as a Trump voter who famously lamented, “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

https://theintercept.com/2021/08/06/middle-class-reagan-patco-strike/

I have written many posts on the death of the Middle Class…..

What’s Killing the American Middle Class?

Who Or What Killed The Middle Class?

The American middle class is dying.

In 2015, it dipped below 50% of the population for the first time since data collection started on the issue. It’s now an official minority group.

Meanwhile, nearly half of Americans don’t have enough money to cover a surprise $400 expense. Many are living paycheck to paycheck, with little to no cushion. And US homes are less affordable than they’ve been in decades—possibly ever.

I’ll tell you why this is happening and how to secure your spot among the “haves” in a moment. But first, let’s take a look at the America that was.

The Long Death of America’s Middle Class

Centrism and corporate control of the government is killing the Middle class….not long from now there will be little left of what use to be the jewel of the American economy…..today it is all about the shareholders and cash….the workers mean NOTHING.

I do not see a reversal of this trend….since cash drives the politics in this country it will only get worse.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Does The Middle Class Really Exist?

It did once but it no longer has the same meaning as in the past.

When I was young there was always the meme that if you work hard and do the right thing you will find yourself living the American dream…..living in the Middle Class.

Sadly that seldom came true after about 1970…..the American people found greed and all its evils….and they liked it.

I have been telling my readers the loss of the Middle Class for years.(sadly few would listen)…..

https://lobotero.com/2018/11/09/wheres-that-middle-class/

https://lobotero.com/2017/06/14/who-or-what-killed-the-middle-class/

https://lobotero.com/2009/12/05/where-has-the-middle-class-gone/

There are many others but you need to look around IST on your own…..

That mythical place called the Middle Class…..sorry but it NO linger exists….

Delia did everything right. She went to college, she got a teaching degree, she found a reliable job, and she got married. She and her husband had two kids. “We followed the traditional path to middle class and economic security,” she told me. “Or so I thought.”

As a teacher in New Jersey, Delia, age 41, makes around $115,000 a year; her husband, who works as a carpenter, makes $45,000. Their $160,000 combined family salary places them firmly in the American middle class, the boundaries of which are considered to be two-thirds of the US median household income on the lowest end and double that same median on the highest, and adjusted for location. (According to the Pew Middle Class Calculator, Delia’s household income places her family in the “middle tier” along with 49 percent of households in the greater tri-state area.)

To most people, $160,000 sounds like a lot of money. “Middle tier” sounds pretty solid. So why does Delia feel so desperate? She’s able to put $150 a month into a retirement account, but the family’s emergency savings account hovers at just $400. Going on vacation has meant juggling costs on several credit cards. “I don’t feel like I’ll ever have a day that I won’t be worried about money,” she said. “I’m resentful of my partner for not making more money, but more resentful of his crappy employer for not paying him more.”

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22166381/hollow-middle-class-american-dream

And yet the GOP and Centrist Dems keep trying to sll the antiquated idea of a Middle Class.

Do Not Believe It!

Look around and tell me what you see.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Has This Nation Become?

It is NO secret that since the election of Trump as the leader of the Free World I feel that the US is going backward not forward…..as a Progressive (read Leftist not Democrat) I see trouble ahead economically….yeah I know things are just ducky right now but that is right now……what about the future…..remember that time when we say we are doing all this idiotic stuff for……

I have been writing about the disappearance of the Middle Class that NO one wants to admit……but now aMIT economist has also seen this slide and written about it (maybe the world will listen to him)……

America is regressing to have the economic and political structure of a developing nation, an MIT economist has warned. 

Peter Temin says the world’s’ largest economy has roads and bridges that look more like those in Thailand and Venezuela than those in parts of Europe. 

In his new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class”, reviewed by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Mr Temin says the fracture of US society is leading the middle class to disappear.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-developing-nation-regressing-economy-poverty-donald-trump-mit-economist-peter-temin-a7694726.html

I wish I could lay all the blame on Trump but that would be disingenuous….the truth is every president since Ronald Reagan has made the slide worse with policies that favor the uber-rich and ignored the plight of the working stiff.

The long the problem is ignored the more that our beloved nation looks more and more like some developing Third World nation……

Is that what you want?

Time to learn some basic economics before you vote…..

Modern Monetary Theory is having a moment.

The theory, in brief, argues that countries that issue their own currencies can never “run out of money” the way people or businesses can. But what was once an obscure “heterodox” branch of economics has now become a major topic of debate among Democrats and economists with astonishing speed.

For that, we can thank Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who told Business Insider in January that MMT “absolutely” needs to be “a larger part of our conversation.” That was the most vocal mainstream support MMT had gotten, which for years had been championed by economists like Stephanie Kelton (a former adviser to Bernie Sanders), L. Randall Wray, Bill Mitchell (who coined the name Modern Monetary Theory), and Warren Mosler — as well as a growing number of economists at Wall Street institutions

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/16/18251646/modern-monetary-theory-new-moment-explained

This will be for those too damn lazy to read……

https://youtu.be/DGZ7nJCzlW4

Are You Middle Class?

Remember when that was something to strive for in your job search? Remember when that was the American Dream? Remember when you could work 40 hours a week and still have enough to live on and even save a little for retirement?

If you remember that then you are an old fart and are remembering something from the “good old days”.

The American Conservative has looked into the Middle Class……

Can we define the middle class in practical terms? To be sure, there are probably as many sociological definitions of the middle class as there are commentators seeking definitions. So let’s set aside the socio-swamp of beliefs, values, and taxonomies of class in favor of a definition with measurable thresholds.

Many commentators attempt to define the middle class by income, and people tend to self-report that they belong to the middle class based on income. The self-evident way to define the middle class by income is to set aside the top 10 percent (households earning $145,000 or more) and those defined as poor by the U.S. Census Bureau (households making less than $25,000), roughly 25 percent of all households.

Somewhere between the two is the middle class, though trying to narrow it down forces us into an impassable statistical thicket. For example, government agencies report income in different ways. The IRS reports individual tax returns (147 million) while other agencies report household income (117 million households).

Are You Really Middle Class?

If you are asking yourself….”what the Hell happened”? Then this can help explain it as simply as possible…..

Something massive and important has happened in the United States over the past 50 years: Economic wealth has become increasingly concentrated among a small group of ultra-wealthy Americans.

You can read lengthy books on this subject, like economist Thomas Piketty’s recent best-seller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (the book runs 696 pages and weighs in at 2.5 pounds). You can see references to this in the campaigns of major political candidates this cycle, who talk repeatedly about how something has gone very wrong in America.

Donald Trump’s motto is to make America great again, while Bernie Sanders’s campaign focused on reducing income inequality. And there’s a reason this message is resonating with voters:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/this-cartoon-explains-how-the-rich-got-rich-and-the-poor-got-poor

We need to assign guilt to the best person….Ronald Reagan….his policies started this decline and it has never let up……

The Middle Class is quickly disappearing and as it does it is taking the American Dream with it.

And the GOP wants you to be happy with your decline…..

Listening to Republicans, it’s apparent they don’t have much respect for the intelligence of the American people.

Over 70 percent of Americans want a national health care system like every other developed country in the world has, but the GOP tells us that we just aren’t smart enough to make it work. It’ll be too confusing and complex for average Americans, they say, and, besides that, if the government “takes over” our health care system, we’re on our way to tyranny.

About two-thirds of Americans think that we should have free college education for anybody intellectually capable of attending, and free trade schools as well—like pretty much every other developed country in the world (and quite a few of the developing countries). Republicans tell us that we can’t use government funds to pay off our nation’s $1.5 trillion in student debt because we just borrowed that exact amount last year to give tax rebates to billionaires, so there’s nothing left. We’re just not smart enough to fix the problem.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/04/republicans-have-put-our-country-path-warp-speed-decline-and-they-want-you-think

As the article says….”as long as the GOP gets some of the people to believe their bullshit all the time”…..the rest of us are screwed!

On a side note……the Pentagon is also in the Middle Class screwing game……

According to SAIS Professor Hal Brands, progressives and Americans should embrace the social benefits military spending offers to the middle class. Not only does American military strength support the liberal world order that makes the world “safe for democracy,” Brands claimed, but military spending undergirds millions of middle-class jobs for service members, civilian employees, and contractors for the Pentagon.

In reality, the opposite is true: American military adventurism and massive spending undermines middle-class prosperity and makes the world less free and secure. A militarized approach to American foreign policy harms global freedom and security far more than it helps.

How the Pentagon Budget is a Threat to the Middle Class

You can stop this…….VOTE!

Vote for the candidate that has the best plan to stop this slide.

Vote for the candidate that best has the best interests of the country at heart.

VOTE!

Closing Thought–29Mar19

I recall my first job as a teenager…..65 cents an hour at McDonalds….and after a month or so it went up to 75 cents…..

I walk down that memory lane because of something I read the other day…..

It seems that if minimum wage had kept pace with Wall Street bonuses then the minimum would be over $30 an hour…..read the story and listen to the video……

Wall Street employees saw their typical annual bonus slip by 17 percent last year to $153,700, according to new data from the New York State Comptroller. But don’t feel sorry for the banking set just yet — even including down years like 2018, bankers’ bonuses have jumped by 1,000 percent since 1985.

By comparison, the federal minimum wage has increased about 116 percent during the same period, according to an analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning research center that used the comptroller’s latest data. If the minimum wage had grown at the same pace as Wall Street bonuses, fast-food workers and other low-wage workers would earn a baseline wage of $33.51 an hour, the group said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minimum-wage-would-be-33-today-if-it-grew-like-wall-street-bonuses-have/

If it had kept pace with the bonuses then the Middle Class would be in better shape than they are today.

Where’s That Middle Class?

I would post on that diabolical “caravan” but it seems to have vanished off the news…..go figure……

Now that the Midterms are over and we have a new Democratic House…..there is one question I want to ask them……”whatcha ya gonna do” for the Middle Class?

How many times have you heard a reference to the “Middle Class” by your politicians?

The Middle Class use to be the poster child for capitalism and for the US.  The Middle Class expands and the economic society is healthy and progressing….

Sad to say that the Middle Class nowadays is nothing but a slogan in the same vane as “patriotism, veterans, etc”….a campaign slogan that few believe any longer…..

Like or not the “bourgeois is getting recast as the proletariat”…..interesting concept right?

The American Conservative has a view on the Middle Class that every American should read……

Everyone loves the middle class. Everyone claims to be middle-class—some to put a gloss on their sketchy escutcheons, others to dodge chastisement for their awkward riches. But in fact both the socioeconomic reality and the concept of the middle class have been turned on their heads and, at the same time, trivialized into a mere lifestyle choice.

Economically, the middle classes were once proprietors, self-employed owners of property and their own labor. Morally, they were the equivalent of “solid citizens”: decent, hard-working, law-abiding, temperate, proper, staid, virtuous, and—well, moral. The qualifications for being middle class have gotten a whole lot looser, to say the least.

The European term “middle classes” originally served to describe merchants, tradesmen, investors, and skilled craftsmen. The habitat of these classes was the walled city—the burg, bourg, or borough—hence their appellation, les bourgeois. The bourgeoisie occupied a middle ground between the nobility and the lower classes of peasants and servants.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-middle-class/

Wages flat….not what Trump wants the “Middle Class” to believe…..we are now divided into two distinct classes…..wealthy and worker…..as long as the corruption continues the chances of a reset are looking better and better…..

Things are changing……

“Out of the frying pan, into the fire” is an apt description of our current place in history. No matter what you think of globalization, I believe we’ll soon discover that capitalism without it is much, much worse.

No one needs to convince establishment economists, politicians and pundits that the absence of globalization and growth spells trouble. They’ve pushed globalization as the Viagra of economic growth for years. But globalization has never been popular with everyone. Capitalism’s critics recognize that it generates tremendous wealth and power for a tiny fraction of the Earth’s seven billion people, makes room for some in the middle class, but keeps most of humanity destitute and desperate, while trashing the planet and jeopardizing human survival for generations to come.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/01/catabolism-capitalisms-frightening-future/

The Middle Class is disappearing……what will the new “House” do to change that?

What Happened After 2008?

A decade on…..and counting.

Remember those days….the economic crash caused by banks playing loose and fast with accounts and trickery…..it all came back to bite them in the ass and we all then decided that banks need to be watched and regulated for the protection of our cash held by them.

For awhile it look good…it looked like we would do what needed doing to make goddamn sure that this could never happen again……and then the big banks started their assault on the people that would control their thievery and then we elected a tool of big capital and most of the regs are being pushed back….and history will be repeated…but while we wait for the next “market correction”…….

A few years ago, one of Karen Petrou’s banking clients gave her an unusual assignment: It wanted her to write a paper laying out “the unintended consequences of the post-financial-crisis capital framework.” Petrou is the co-founder of Federal Financial Analytics Inc., a financial services consulting firm in Washington that focuses on public policy and regulatory issues. She is also, as the American Banker once described her, “the sharpest mind analyzing banking policy today — maybe ever.” Whenever I’m writing about banking issues, she’s the first person I call.

Writing that paper caused Petrou to ask a question she’d never really considered before: Did the bank regulations enacted after the 2008 crisis — along with the Federal Reserve’s post-crisis monetary policy — exacerbate income inequality? Her answer, which she laid out in a series of blog posts, as well as a lecture at the New York Federal Reserve in March, was yes. “Post-crisis monetary and regulatory policy had an unintended but nonetheless dramatic impact on the income and wealth divides,” she wrote recently.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-06/inequality-why-bank-rules-and-fed-rates-hurt-middle-class

While the nation is focused on Russia and whether they are bad players on the world stage….the inequality in this country grows with every economic report and NO ONE cares….instead they will slobber over slogans and BS and a promise of better days and yet those days are getting further and further away for most in the middle class.

This recovery has not been great for workers. They have seen modest real wage gains over the last five years, but these gains have not come close to making up the ground lost in the recession and the first years of the recovery.

Nonetheless, real wages have been growing for most of the last five years. The last month has been an exception to this pattern, not because nominal wages have grown less, but because we had a large jump in energy prices, which has depressed real wage growth. Here’s picture for the last five years.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/07/the-story-of-stagnant-wage-growth/