Being Middle Class is no Relief!

What happened to the American Dream? War was declared on the American Dream long ago. In fact, it’s been long enough that there aren’t enough people alive who remember a thriving and growing middle class in America. First the steel plants began closing in places like Youngstown and eventually the car plants began closing in places like Flint. Jobs that were firmly middle class are gone- downsized, out-sourced, eliminated in an effort to get leaner and meaner, lost to structural changes in the economy. The battle between economic classes in this country has already been lost. The middle class has no voice, no direction, and no plan.

As gas prices soar, instead of devising a plan to cut consumption (which would also keep more money in our pockets), the middle class just goes without other things. As food prices soar, the middle class just does without other things. As healthcare costs go up, the middle class just goes without other things. Well, when doing without means that we can’t even afford to buy groceries in a supermarket anymore, or take our family out to eat at a decent restaurant once in a while, or make the mortgage payment, or pay for quality daycare, then what? When there isn’t anything else to cut, you are no longer middle class.

Amid all the corporate bailouts and homeowner bailouts, people in the middle class ought to be wondering, "What about me?" Didn’t President Obama say that he was going to protect the middle class when he was campaigning? There was something about the rich paying more and the middle class paying less. What happened? Why isn't anyone looking out for the middle class? Why are people spending more on everything this year when so many went without a salary increase, if they managed to maintain their employment at all?

So in middle class America, there are those who were responsible enough to buy an affordable house with a fixed rate mortgage in a less desirable neighborhood. There are those who couldn’t afford to invest in the stock market but their pension fund took a hit, if their job still offers one. Others get bailed out, but what about the middle class?

If you want to help the middle class and protect families, student loan forgiveness and interest rate cuts on the loans are the way to go. Education has always been seen as a great equalizer. But for the middle class it’s becoming a gamble. Someone who grew up middle class and goes off to college will take student loans at a whopping 6.8% interest rate (higher than mortgage rates- 4.7% on 30 year fixed, and car loans- 4.8% for 60 months). With the cost of higher education, that person may be able to get a decent job, but will never live in the same neighborhood as coworkers who grew up wealthy or those who grew up poor. Neither the child of privilege nor the child of poverty who attend college have to pay student loans (or at least required far smaller loans). In essence, the vehicle that allows middle class kids to attend college is also an albatross around the neck of the middle class because they are so expensive and take so long to pay back.

Its time for a middle class bailout! Its time for the President and Congress to protect the middle class. Its time for the government to lower student loan interest from the whopping 6.8% it is currently. Cut it in half now! The government should also forgive some debt for those who work in the public sector. If you are a teacher, a percentage of your student loan should be forgiven. If you work in social services and you have student loans, they should get chopped too. If you are an EMT, you deserve relief. Did you go to nursing school? If you did, you deserve some loan relief too. How can you ever expect to attract the best and brightest into teaching and other public sector jobs if there is no financial incentive? How can you expect to retain people in these public sector jobs if the wages are no longer livable?