Racism Meets A Rigged Economy - Proof Positive Of The Primary's Top Issues

[corbettkroehler]

When our candidates campaign on the profound disadvantages faced by Americans of color, such as red-lining, infant mortality, obstetric mortality, for-profit incarceration, pay inequity, etc., the specifics can feel a bit abstract. This article from the financial press lays it out for us with cold, hard facts and figures.

In short, reality bites!

12 years after starting college, white men have paid off 44% of their student loans, while black women owe 13% more

Published: July 3, 2019 11:02 a.m. ET

http://marketwatch.com/story/12-years-after-starting-college-white-men-have-paid-off-44-of-their-student-loans-and-black-women-owe-13-more-2019-06-06

The experience of repaying student loans is unpleasant for millions of graduates, but for some borrowers, paying off student debt is an almost insurmountable challenge.

Twelve years after entering college, white men have paid off 44% of their student-loan balance on average, according to an analysis released this month by Demos, a left-leaning think tank. For white women, that share drops to 28%. For black borrowers, the picture is even bleaker. Black women see their loan balances actually grow 13% on average, 12 years after leaving school, while black men see their balances grow 11%.

_____________________

‘The ability to pay off your loans has everything to do with wages and the ability to gain secure employment; it has everything to do with housing affordability; it has everything to do with child-care costs.’

— Mark Huelsman, associate director, policy and research at Demos

_____________________

The age at which students enter college also plays a role in their ability to pay off debt. Students who start college at age 20 or older have paid off just 5% of their debt on average, at minimum, 12 years after leaving school. Students who enter school at age 18 or 19 have typically paid off more than one-quarter of their debt 12 years after leaving college, the report found.

[The Mouth]

1. I am one of those for whom the economy is the top issue

as important as ALL others put together.

In a good economy, Racism loses much of it's ability to appeal. Sure, it's always a factor, but it becomes orders of magnitude more powerful and dangerous when there are significant numbers of poor and disenfranchised. A white racist with a decent job and prospects of economic improvement may still be a racist jerk, but a hell of a lot less motivated one.

In Ireland, the real end to 'the Troubles' came about not with any increase in understanding, compassion, or cultural enlightenment, it came about because for many idleness was replaced by jobs, and poverty by at least some hope.

It's not that racial justice and gender equality don't matter, it's that only when a rising tide is (somewhat equally) raising all ship that *anything* can be done about it.

Putting the economy as a primary issue doesn't mean that I (and probably many who think as I do) don't deeply care about race, it means that I think anything we try to do about race is not going to work until economic inequality is addressed first. Other people, whom I deeply admire, believe the exact opposite- that until racial inequality is addressed economic equality can't be. Obviously they are interrelated, but you can't prioritize everything at once.

[corbettkroehler]

2. I Appreciate Your Keen Insights

As a famous politicians once said, "It's the economy, stupid." He was right, of course.

As another once said, "All politics is local."

tЯump myopically thinks he'll coast to victory on a "good" economy. During the Thursday debate last week, Senator Harris shot down that notion with both barrels.

[The Mouth]

5. I am not so sure.

She took a good shot, but both of your quotes from Clinton and O'Neil are spot on; if the economy is doing well it's going to be a very different race than if it isn't. I don't know about 'coast' in any event, but a DJIA flirting with 30K and low unemployment (the real reason he's riding the fed to goose things along) is going to make a lot of people much more reluctant to change.

Warren is the best of all worlds, I think, actually knowledgeable about macroeconomic issues, progressive, female, and a good fighter.

[crazytown]

11. "The fundamental truth is,

a rising tide does not lift all boats. Not on its own. Especially if some of the boats are tethered to the ocean floor. " Pete Buttigieg

[StarfishSaver]

12. Thank you

[crazytown]

14. There are no preconditions for 'racial justice and gender equality'

economic or otherwise. Justice is not a luxury.

[marylandblue]

13. This is the key hidden problem in 2016 and now we must address in 2020.

If you just look at GDP, unemployment and the stock market, everything is fine. If your a small boat tethered to the bottom, you are pissed. If the Democratic Party does not promise to immediately cut those tethers, people will vote for the angry guy who promises to blow up somebody else's boat.

What I don't get is why so many people in the party don't see this.

[crazytown]

15. It is put in the too hard basket.

It is an article of faith that the 'big infrastructure spend' that has been blocked by the GOP since the '90s will address those left behind or worse by economic change. The weasel words are we 'have more to do' or 'further to go'.

Mario Cuomo nailed it in 1984 - Government can't do everything," we were told, so it should settle for taking care of the strong and hope that economic ambition and charity will do the rest. ... it's the same shining city for those relative few who are lucky enough to live in its good neighborhoods. But for the people who are excluded, for the people who are locked out, all they can do is stare from a distance at that city's glimmering towers.

The Republicans believe that the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behind by the side of the trail.

[The Mouth]

16. Excellent

How true. Thanks

[Honeycombe8]

3. This needs to be studied and fixed.

Whatever it takes. They can't get ahead with that debt hanging over them.

There could be a number of factors besides just racism, altho racism could be a factor. Could be the vocations they go into don't pay as much. Could be the cities they live in have lower wage scales. For instance, there is a very high AA population where I live right now. Deeeeeep south. The avg wage here is a lot lower than the national avg, but the COL isn't much lower than the nat'l avg. Young people really should leave here for bigger cities and better pay, IMO. But most don't.

My sister had student debt she never paid back (she died before she made a dent in the debt). She'd majored in accounting, and stayed put here in this small city that pays squat. There would have been little chance to pay that debt back, given what staff accounting clerks or accountants earn here. And there weren't many accounting clerk jobs, because that's a very common degree, so lots of applicants.

I'm wondering if counseling along the lines of pay and benefits should be involved, when students get loans. Most young people have no idea what benefits to look for or what salaries to expect for different vocations, or understand how the debt will grow over time. When I was in college, the counselor thought it was odd and irrelevant for a female student to consider the pay of a vocation I would go into. (This was decades ago, young women. Yes, that's how it really was! It was assumed the female grad wouldn't work long, if at all, unless she had a vocation where she could be home by the time the kiddies were let out of school.)

[corbettkroehler]

4. I Concur - I Was Sickened When I Read It

We need to remember that, in a rigged economy, one of the goals of the legitimatized loan sharks (federal student loan originators) is the perpetual debt spiral. Pay low-wage workers just enough to avoid starvation and they always will be stuck hand-to-mouth, while loans they can't refinance compound.

[Honeycombe8]

7. It reminds me a bit of that song by Tennessee Ernie Ford, "Sixteen Tons."

It was about the miners...miners would be hired, but they were made to live in the town by the mine, in houses owned by the mining company, where the rent was high. They were required to buy their food & supplies at the local store, at high prices...also owned by the mining company. The pay was so low that they had to run a tab on their supplies, food and/or rent. They couldn't leave employment until they had paid off their debt in full. Catch-22. The debt could not be paid off because the system was rigged.

You load sixteen tons, waddya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St. Peter, don't you call me, cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the company sto'.

[The Mouth]

6. Plus the way loans are 'sold' to young kids

with hype that plays on the great expectations of many in this age group. Plus the fact lots of people can't 'do' the math WRT compound interest. The game is terribly rigged against all, but at least here in the Bay Area salaries are insanely high in some of the better fields.

[MichMan]

10. Mixed feelings on whether or not a field of study should be considered for loans

Who gets to make the decision if a field of study is worthy enough to receive a loan or not?

What if the Trump administration decided that there would no longer be loans approved for Ethnic Studies, Music, or
Theatre Arts? Maybe to decide there are enough lawyers already, so no loans for law. Seems like it could be a slippery slope.

That being said, the students bright enough to attend college should be able ,with a minimum of research , to determine if average salaries are adequate to pay back loans when they choose a major. I think they look at something in the college catalog and think; that looks cool. I think one of the major issues is that students see loans as monopoly money and dont give them much thought.

I did however have a friend a couple decades or more ago tell me that he was considering Engineering as a major. He changed to Journalism and this it what he told me "Engineering has good starting salaries, but after that they stay about the same. A journalist like Sam Donaldson that covers the White House makes a lot more $$$" Of course, the only journalism job he could get was for a local free paper covering city council meetings etc. (he would have never made it in Engineering , so I guess it was a good thing he changed his mind).

[Turin_C3PO]

8. Thanks for the post.

Student loan debt is a national crisis, IMO and must addressed by our nominee.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. I don't think it will change

I think it's great to address economic issues - but this won't change for black folks until my nieces and nephews are in their late 30's/early 40's - about 10/12 years from now. A major shift in demographics - when more non-white than white are in America - that's when the tide turns.

One nephew works at Goldman Sachs in Private Equity / Derivatives - his vision (yep he's a bankster and proud of it!) -

A black owned boutique venture capital firm that point blank discriminates against non black inventors. That's why he lives with three guys in an apartment in Hoboken - he's trying to put his bonus away and living expenses kept down. At 27 - his Princeton Grad School is paid off completely.

I think the idea of returning to self sustaining intra communities is appealing to a lot of young black folks.

The experiment failed - but they time is on their side.