Is middle class becoming harder financially than the poor-class in today’s world? I am looking at today’s financial burdens and future financial burdens. I know there are social, security, and all around well-being factors also when comparing these two classes, but I am not looking at those in this article. I will be comparing middle-class to poor-class in the areas of education and health insurance because I know these are two critical burdens financially; I will not add upper-class into the equation. I feel upper-class’s burden is not near the other two classes in these areas. Poor-class is an annual family income of around $0-$19,177 and middle-class is around $36,000 to $57,657.
Education is becoming more and more a required standard for living decent. More jobs are requiring college education. This being said, funding for college education is now a regular payment, like a car. Families’ survival depends on members going to college. Parents of middle-class students tend to have to help with their kids’ college career if they want them to “have a better life.” This puts financial strain on their already strenuous life. A lot of middle-class parents have to take out loans or even pull money from their retirement.
FASFA, the agency that handles financial aid, makes you fill out your parents’ financial information when applying for financial aid. They assume that parents make contributions towards their childrens' college education. A student can claim independence when filling out their tax information but not when filling out financial aid information. They combine a students’ income with their parents’ income and then figure out if one qualifies for aid and of what kind. The majority of students that I spoke to or read about do not meet the requirements to receive financial aid through grants from the government. Instead they receive financial aid through loans, which most students try to stay away from loans for fear of debt. One student I spoke to said her income of $16,000 a year and her moms of $25,000 a year was too much to receive grants, so she resorts to accepting only student loans. Another way students pay for their college is by using credit cards. According to an article by Tamera Briones in The Green Gazette, 24% of students put their school expenses on credit cards. There is some hope for middle-class students though. Ivy League schools are starting to pay full or partially for middle-class students’ tuition but because of the competition for those schools,for most students that is not an option. Also students that are considered within the poor class usually have an advantage when attending public schools. Often these students qualify for grants and scholarships, which do not have to be paid back, because of their parents "understood" inability to contribute.
Health insurance is a major financial burden, if not the greatest financial burden. According to an article by Robert Pear of International Herald Tribune, about 17 million people of the 47 million uninsured have a family income of 40,000 or more. This number is steadily increasing as middle-class is becoming more of a struggle. The same article writes about a lady who made 60,000 a year working for herself. She could not get an insurance company to insure her for a reasonable price because she previously had cancer. She would have to pay $2,400 a month for insurance. A few of my coworkers have to pay about $400 a month for their families to be insured. One of them had to take his wife off of his insurance plan because he could not afford her, so she is uninsured. This is a known occurrence with middle-class families. They constantly have to make sacrifices to their health to deal with the increasing cost of insurance. The same lady that had cancer has to pay out of pocket for doctor visits which she attends sparingly to save money. Also her medicine that costs about $300 a month, she must takes 3 times a week instead of 7 to save money. If you are classified as being within the poverty group you can qualify for Medicaid, which will cover most of your medical expenses including medicines.
I am not saying lower-class should not get help with medical expenses by all means. I am saying the government has left the middle-class out of the aid equation. I spoke to a woman who is considered in the poor-class, who is scared to work for fear of earning too much. By earning too much Medicare will get taken away from her, thus rendering her enable to afford her necessary medications. This causes more unemployment because people feel working makes their lives harder.
The government has created a black and white system. You either get aid or you do not. A lot of people I talked to in the poor-class feel that moving up the economic ladder is unfeasible becauseof the loss of help when you make more money. I think the middle-class needs help from the government, just not as much as the poor-class. If the government increases the maximum family income limit that received financial help and kept it percentage based, it would help several of our economy’s problems. There would be less uninsured, and it would help unemployment as more people feel that working truly benefits them.
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In a recent article written by one of my peers, the topic of the middle class population falling through the cracks was discussed. The author states that many middle class families can not afford insurance nor out-of-pocket medical costs, but also earn too much for social services, leaving them in a tough spot. Yet, many people receiving government aid feel they can not afford to work because they would then lose their government benefits. I can certainly relate to this! We are a family of six, and by the authors numbers are just above middle class income "limits". While we are able to live fairly comfortably, we can not afford the $420 a month to insure me. My husbands employer pays his premium, and our children are insured, but since I only work part-time and can not get insurance through my employer, we are going on a wing and a prayer that nothing medically bad happens to me. Unfortunately that's just not realistic. A year and a half ago I broke my hand, and the emergency room visit alone cost $600! Therefore, I was unable to see an orthopedic specialist as recommended and consequently live with sporadic pain in my right hand. It is hard for me to not get emotional regarding this topic because I feel I work very hard to be a responsible and productive member of society, yet health insurance is a luxury for me. From my investigating, I have determined it is pretty difficult to get government health insurance for a rather healthy adult, although it would be easier if I had a chronic illness. Even if I could quit working and definitely get government health care, I would still essentially be paying a premium because of the loss of income from my job - I just wouldn't have the copays, I suppose. Either way, it's definitely a catch-22. I am truly hopeful we see some government reform of the health care crisis in our country when we get our new President.
The author also addressed education costs and payment among the poor and middle class. Again, there is a large gap where those that earn a little too much but not quite enough fall. I believe it is great there is such a thing as a Pell Grant and other subsidies for our citizens that qualify (luckily I got this one since we have a large family and are not anyone's dependents!), but agree we could allocate more funds to help those families that can't afford to save for their children's education and subsequently are unable to afford to pay the tuition bill when it comes around. Agreeing with the author, not having a college education is almost not an option these days - but it also doesn't automatically secure employment. It is sad and scary to think of a young person in their early twenties aquiring such large sums of debt with no idea what their future income will be. I have taken out a loan for school as well since the Pell Grant didn't come close to covering my expenses and tuition, but at least I know what my husband earns every month and will likely continue to earn and can decide whether this is a debt I can afford to acquire. My children were blessed with large sums of stock when they were born, but with inflation I still worry about paying for college. In the meantime, I encourage my children to practice and be successful in their chosen extra-curricular activities beacuse Plan B consists of a recording contract or NFL draft pick!
Kidding aside, I, as well as a most of the middle class population, work hard to pay our taxes, support ourselves and our families and generally not be a burden on society. While I do these things because I want to and they are the right things to do, I would like to see our tax dollars going somewhere other than what seems to be a never-ending war amongst other frivolous expenditures our sometimes disconnected government has deemed necessary. On the other hand, we are not victims - we must at least bring these issues to our politcians to make our voice heard and then vote for those who might have a chance of making some of these changes. Being a fairly optimistic person, I am thrilled that these topics are be discussed - even if my faith in Washington is waning.
My classmate’s blog posting, Middle-class, the most financially burdened?, takes a well thought out look at the financial situation of many people in the middle-class. I have been on both sides of the fence and personally experienced the difficulties of being in a burdened middle-class family and having personal income below the poverty level. I believe the extreme costs of college and flaws in the educational grant and loan system can unfairly hold back students like from a financially or otherwise burdened middle-class background. As a teenager I did very well in high school and had SAT scores in the 1400s, but we had a lot of family problems and I dropped out to work full time and move out at 17. After moving to Austin a few years later I was working full-time and making less than 8k a year. I got my GED in hopes of bettering my situation. I went to fill out my FAFSA and I was really angry to find out I had to fill out my parents’ income information who I hadn’t even spoken to in several years. I called them up just to find out that they both work full time and earn around 60k between the both of them, making me ineligible for any grants and only eligible for an unsubsidized loan of 1200 dollars. I couldn’t get any personal loans or credit cards because my credit score was very low. The only debts I had were due to hospital and doctor related bills when I had no medical insurance. I’d never had a credit card or bought anything outside of my means. I only went to the doctor or hospital in emergencies. I tried explaining the circumstances of my life and even discussing very personal matters to be considered independent but had no success. I felt like I slipped through the cracks and was confronted with mind-numbing bureaucracy every step of the way. As a person under 24 with middle-class parents it seems the financial aid system believes it is guaranteed that your parents will pay for you to go to college. In real life though people have lot’s of different circumstances that can prevent this from happening, so your only other option is to find a full time job without a college degree where you can earn enough to support yourself and pay outrageous college expenses.
My father is an allergist in his 70’s with a small local private practice whose income is less than half of what it used to be because of the costs of malpractice insurance and other infringements on his business by insurance companies. My parents were heavily in debt due to the large change in his income and were getting deeper in debt over the years trying to keep their house which they eventually had to move out of. The FAFSA asks questions about parent’s assets and income but no questions about their debts. A decent amount of people with middle-class incomes are in debt and already struggling to pay them and their mortgages and do not have any college funds set up for their children.
I’m glad to live in a country where people can receive financial aid to get an education, but at the same time I wonder why the cost of universities are rising so much to unbelievable prices. It is becoming another way to block the upward mobility of many Americans. Middle-class income isn’t rising fast enough to match costs and in some cases is dropping. In 2008 in the US education and pathways to success should be reasonably available to anyone willing to work hard.
When I turned 24 and still had an income below poverty level, in this aspect my life has become easier, and I can relate to the fact that the more money I earn the less aid I receive. Poor and middle-class Americans who work full-time jobs are still competing academically and eventually for jobs, with middle and upper-class Americans who do not have to work and can focus completely on school. But in perspective this is reasonable and provides the opportunity, which is better than being shut out of the higher education system completely.
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