tagged w/ Student Loan
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As you’re probably already aware, ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com has teamed up with the folks behind the new PBS Documentary - Default: The Student Loan Documentary - on a new online photo journal project called OccupyStudentDebt.com.
There, people from all walks of life, from recent grads to people in their 60s and beyond, are courageously sharing their student loan horror stories for all the world to see, in an effort to put human faces on the ever-growing student loan debt crisis in America.As you’re probably already aware, ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com has teamed up with... more
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Is going to college a worthwhile investment? Is the education that our young people are receiving at our colleges and universities really worth all of the time, money and effort that is required? Decades ago, a college education was quite inexpensive and it was almost an automatic ticket to the middle class. But today all of that has changed.Is going to college a worthwhile investment? Is the education that our young people... more
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By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
The super rich are different from you and me. For one thing, their tax rates are lower.
According to IRS statistics, the nation’s top 400 taxpayers increased their average income by 392% and slashed their average tax rate by 37% between 1992 and 2007, Dave Gilson reports in Mother Jones. Furthermore, when you factor in payroll taxes, the tax rate for Americans earning $370,000 is nearly equal to the rate for those making between $43,000 and $69,000 a year.
Meanwhile, at TAPPED, Jamelle Bouie notes that, in 2007, more than 10,000 Americans reported incomes of $200,000 or higher and paid no income tax at all. These lucky ducks are known to the IRS as HINTs, which stands for High Income, No Taxes.
Pseudo-farms of the rich and tax-dodging
The ultra-rich are using deluxe hobby farms to dodge millions of dollars in taxes, Yasha Levine reports for The Nation:
Take Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers and the second-richest Texan, who qualified for an agricultural property tax break on his sprawling 1,757-acre residential ranch in suburban Austin and saved over $1 million simply because his family and friends sometimes use the land as a private hunting preserve to shoot deer. Or take billionaire publisher Steve Forbes, who got more than a 90 percent property tax reduction on hundreds of acres of his multimillion-dollar estate in upscale Bedminister, New Jersey, just by putting a couple of cows out to pasture.
Agricultural tax breaks were originally designed to help farmers stay on their land as suburban sprawl grew up around them. As neighborhoods shifted from rural to residential in the 1950s and ’60s, farmers struggled to keep up with rising local taxes.
So, who’s a farmer for tax purposes? Levine reports that the standards are ridiculously low in many states, like New Jersey, where a yard full of weeds can qualify as a farm.
Worst of all, tax breaks for faux farms are depriving public schools of billions of dollars of desperately needed revenue. In Texas–which loses over a billion dollars a year in property taxes from pseudo-ranches of the rich and famous–hundreds of public school students are taking to the streets to protest massive proposed layoffs of teachers and support staffers, Abby Rapoport reports in the Texas Observer.
Tax me, I’m rich
A group of self-proclaimed “trust fund babies” is demanding higher taxes, Pete Redington reports for Working In These Times:
Resource Generation recently teamed up with another nonprofit that organizes affluent activists, Wealth for the Common Good, to form a Progressive Tax Campaign. They will be organizing and advocating a change in the policy, laws and perceptions of our tax system. Specifically, the campaign aims to draw attention to the social services that taxing the wealthy could fund, and advocates higher tax bracket rates for top income earners, as well as higher taxes on investment income.
Major debt
Student loan debt is likely to reach $1 trillion this year, outpacing credit card debt for the second year in a row, Julie Margetta Morgan reports for Campus Progress. Student loans can be a smart investment if they lead to a lifetime of higher earnings. However, Margetta Morgan notes, the average bachelor’s degree holder will shell out $250 a month for a decade to pay back the loan.
Many Americans won’t pay off their debt until their own children are in college. President Obama was still making payments into his late 40s.
As college tuition continues to rise, we can expect students to borrow even more for their education in years to come. Much of this debt is guaranteed by the taxpayer. Margetta Morgan argues that colleges should be doing more to educate students about smart borrowing.
The economics of happiness
Kristy Leissle reviews the new documentary, The Economics of Happiness, for YES! Magazine. The film argues that community is the foundation of happiness and that globalization is the enemy of community. The movie also examines what ordinary citizens can do to nurture their own communities.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the economy by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Audit for a complete list of articles on economic issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Mulch, The Pulse and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
The super rich are different from... more
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The Examiner. com - New York - By Leo Kapakos
4/4/2011
Boehner's "poor and lazy" comments to Rolling Stone reflect his party's beliefs.
Speaker of the House John Boehner claims that the “poor and lazy” caused the current economic crisis during an interview Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone according to Rumorville.com. Boehner stuck to Republican Party talking points during the interview until Taibbi during a coffee break asked Boehner about today's young people. Apparently unaware he was still on record, Boehner, let Taibbi know how he really felt about poor Americans:
"Can't pay your student loan? Face it your parents were lazy and you couldn't afford college. The world needs ditch diggers and you were born into a family of them. Can't pay your mortgage? Your house was too expensive and you couldn't afford it."It's not going to happen in the US. The kids here are too fat, too lazy, to addicted to TV, fast food, cheap credit, and facebook.” I have news for you- there are plenty of jobs out there- the unemployed don't want them. Today's college student feels entitled to make at least $24 right after college. I'm not worried for this country- there are a few of them who actually want to work, take Mark Zucker(sic). You don't build a site like facebook out of thin air- it takes talent and hard work. I went to a community college and all I saw were people sitting in front of computers typing away, their eyes were fixed. Probably just facebooking away."
For the record, I was raised in the inner city and went to a community college and I did fine. Moreover, Mark Zuckerberg is not your typical American college student. Zuckerberg was a child prodigy who came from a well-to-do family and went to Harvard without the help of student loans. By the way, there are claims that Zuckerberg stole the idea and code for Facebook so he may have been a bit ethically challenged which you forgot to mention. If that’s true, he missed his calling on Wall Street – but I digress.
Read more....
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-new-york/boehner-s-poor-and-lazy-comments-to-rolling-stone-reflect-his-party-s-beliefsThe Examiner. com - New York - By Leo Kapakos
4/4/2011
Boehner's "poor... more
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It’s absolutely essential that you come up with a financial plan for college months before you leave home. Listed below are 10 ways to pay for college – most of which are not mutually exclusive.
:http://www.onlinecertificateprograms.org/blog/2010/10-ways-to-pay-for-college/It’s absolutely essential that you come up with a financial plan for college... more
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