Are you the 9.9%?

[Amethyst]

I didn't prepare for the SAT. So it doesn't strike me as something I should worry about for other people. But that's just me.

When it comes to helping society as a whole, I worry more about hungry people of all ages. There are a lot of them in our country. But charity is such an individual thing, I would never discourage others from contributing to what seems best to them.

direct some charitable giving to donating an SAT prep course to someone that can't afford it. The SAT is largely a test of how well you prepared for the SAT, which is largely a function of how much money your parents have.

 

[Amethyst]

We also need to eliminate any possible stigma attaching to a vocational education, as opposed to college. Heck, my plumber is a Master Plumber who makes big bucks, plus he teaches plumbing at the local Community College. And you can't outsource plumbing too well.

It is an interesting read.

What concerns me is the rising cost of education and the erosion of the middle class. We desperately need to keep basic post secondary education affordable for all.

 

[RunningBum]

I thought he was pretty clear in the article about solutions, not just problems.


Quote: We need to peel our eyes away from the mirror of our own success and think about what we can do in our everyday lives for the people who aren’t our neighbors. We should be fighting for opportunities for other people’s children as if the future of our own children depended on it. It probably does.


One solution might be to give time and money in a way that targets social mobility. One idea off the top of my head - direct some charitable giving to donating an SAT prep course to someone that can't afford it. The SAT is largely a test of how well you prepared for the SAT, which is largely a function of how much money your parents have.

The author did not provide anything concrete that I see, and in fact took another swipe in the first line. You did provide an idea, and I thank you for that. When I opened my donor advised fund last year I started looking for some social causes like this to give to, and will continue to do so.

 

[scrabbler1]

I didn't prepare for the SAT. So it doesn't strike me as something I should worry about for other people. But that's just me.

I didn't prepare for the SAT, either. The night before the test, I took the practice test in the back of the booklet. I had two philosophies about the test: The math part, no problem! The verbal, no hope!

 

[scrabbler1]

Totally agree with that- not only because there are so many people with degrees that companies can insist on them, even at clerical level, but also because so many traditional blue-collar jobs that paid a decent wage are disappearing. Sadly, it's also the first-gen college kids who are likely to choose unmarketable majors, to take longer to graduate because they have to take "remedial" courses and who are more likely to drop out and end up with student loan debt but no increased earning power.

Reminds me of a joke I heard back in the 1980s when I was in college (majoring in Economics). It might have been a Jackie Mason joke, it sounds like him. "The philosophy majors can't get jobs after they graduate.....but at least they know WHY!"

 

[Bamaman]

I am a 9.9%er, however you wouldn't know it.

My wife grew up with 5 kids in a 10x10 foot bedroom, no car, no phone, no television and a hot dog on white bread as a special meal. And her father was a railroader and alcoholic. We are ridiculously frugal.

The article was very rambling and just too long to keep my attention.

 

[rayinpenn]

This once, poorer than a church mouse guy, is unapologetic in my love of capitalism. I started with nothing other then the feeling that education was my way out. It worked, in my opinion it can still work.

Oh there’s one thing small thing I didn’t see in the article... it doesn’t matter how much you make. what matters is how much you managed to hang onto.

 

[38Chevy454]

I did not really read this as a stereotypical left-wing classist guilt-trip us-vs-them propaganda piece....

I agree, not my guilt trip and self-loathing liberal problem.


The author may state some study's facts for examples, but hard to take it serious when it has such a left-leaning bias discussion by the author.

 

[Luck_Club]

will have legs. no porky for this post.

Skimmed the article got the gist.

 

[pb4uski]

I didn't prepare for the SAT, either. ....

Neither DW nor I took an SAT prep course either. DD did, but she said that her score after taking the SAT prep course was not as good as the SAT score that she had the first time she took the SAT.

 

[zinger1457]

Had my parents not been able to pay for my college then that would have been my plan. I'm pretty disciplined (now anyway, not so much back then) so I think it would have worked out well for me. Thank you for your service.

The cost for education is so much different today then it was in my day (70's). Back then tuition at a state college in MA was $150/semester. With a little financial aid that was available it was probably cheaper for my parents when I went off to college then when I was living at home.

 

[Gumby]

If wealth follows a normal distribution, over the course of my life I have moved from the third standard deviation on the left to the third standard deviation on the right. Do I feel guilty about it? Not in the least. Do I recognize that there was a lot more involved in that move beyond my own abilities and effort? Most certainly. How do I respond? See Luke 12:48.

 

[RunningBum]

Luke? Who's Luke?

(Name the movie)

Re: SAT prep, I don't think those were a very normal thing back in 80s and earlier, was it? I don't even recall it being offered when I took it in the late 70s, but it wouldn't have been on my family's radar. As it turns out, I'm especially strong in standardized testing, so I did well and got scholarships for both my ACT and PSAT/SAT scores. I might not have done so well relatively if many others had prep. But I know I retook at least one of them and did worse the second time.

 

[LOL!]

If one has ever lived outside of the NYC / Boston metroplex, then one will understand that this article is mostly about the elite in those areas.

The top 20 elite universities do not admit any kind of significant fraction of graduating high school seniors, so most of the 0.1% and the 9.9% have to send their children who go to college to other universities anyways.

Part 5 of the article missed all the tax breaks given to the wealthy to send their kids to college: AOTC, 529 plans, other education credits. I suppose Stewart missed these since he has not sent his daughter to college yet. But college savings plans do get a mention later in the article.

 

[Hermit]

I am a 9.9%er, however you wouldn't know it.

My wife grew up with 5 kids in a 10x10 foot bedroom, no car, no phone, no television and a hot dog on white bread as a special meal. And her father was a railroader and alcoholic. We are ridiculously frugal.

The article was very rambling and just too long to keep my attention.

There is no such thing as a poorly paying railroad position in the US. Hasn't been for 80 years or better. It must have been more an alcohol problem.

 

[Hermit]

Luke? Who's Luke?

(Name the movie)

...

I don't see the humor.

 

[Dash man]

I’d never heard of SAT prep in high school. My counselor decided not to waste time on me and said I should attend a vocational school. So I applied to a few state universities and got accepted. My parents helped the first year, but cut me off when they divorced. I worked three jobs to get through the last three years of school, and finally earned my degree. I married, joined the military after a recession resulted in a job loss, had a son, divorced, and found myself in my mid thirties broke, in debt and unemployed having left the service. I read a few books on finance, including techniques to get out of debt. I worked whatever job I could find, but it was tough coming out of the Air Force. Eventually I found a good job and went into high gear LBYM. Got some additional training paid for by my employer and moved up a few notches. Continuously saved even with child support payments each month. Managed to put some aside for my son’s college too. At this point my net worth was growing quickly and officially child support was done, though helping seems to never end. I remarried to DW who at the time was earning just a bit more than me. Together we saved and invested everything we good. She got a promotion and then another in short order. Stock options were issued and a merger took place that sent us into to 9.9%. Our other investments started paying off well to. We diversified stock holdings as her options vested and also invested in rental property. Her father was a construction foreman and her mother was a SAHM with 5 kids.
She was also widowed with a two year old son with her only having a high school diploma. Her late husband left her $45k in debt she didn’t know about. She worked full time and raised her son while taking night classes to earn her degree.
Don’t talk to us about privilege.

 

[scrabbler1]

We had SAT prep courses back in 1980-81. I worked in my local public library back then as a high school student and saw many of my classmates attending those Saturday morning classes at the library in preparation for the same SATs I took.

 

[aja8888]

I never took a SAT. I guess they didn't exist in 1969. I went to a technical college and then got into an engineering college after two years.

 

[JDARNELL]

Same for me. That was my ticket out. Best thing that ever happened for me and I really didn't realize it at the time.

Count me in as well. Joining the military got me out of the sticks. I come from a place where you cut the grass and find a car.

 

[ERD50]

I didn't get past the sub-title: "The class divide is already toxic, and is fast becoming unbridgeable. You’re probably part of the problem."

Seems they already decided that "class divide" is a problem, and it is 'toxic', and who is to blame. The odds of getting anything out of the article, when it starts that way, are too low for me to invest the time.
Judging from the comments here, I made the right choice.

- ERD50

 

[USGrant1962]

I agree with many of the comments above regarding the biased and shallow, yet excruciatingly lengthy, nature of the subject article. What bugged me most was the huge number of bald assertions with no basis or fact to back them up.

The article is very bubble-icious for certain coastal enclaves.

 

[ER Eddie]

I didn't read the whole article -- not really interested in the politics of it, I just wanted to know what the cutoff was.

The article says that you'd need 1.2 million net worth to be in the top 10%. So that means 10% of the country are millionaires? Or am I misinterpreting that?

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I found the article pretty interesting, especially the Great Gatsby Curve. Our kids are pretty aware of how fortunate they are in the household economics lottery and mention it from time to time. This was especially true after moving away from home / going to college and meeting kids their age from lower income households who have to worry about basic bills like tuition or car repairs because the parents either aren't there for them or simply don' t have the money to help them even if they wanted to.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

If wealth follows a normal distribution, over the course of my life I have moved from the third standard deviation on the left to the third standard deviation on the right. Do I feel guilty about it? Not in the least. Do I recognize that there was a lot more involved in that move beyond my own abilities and effort? Most certainly. How do I respond? See Luke 12:48.

+1

could describe my progress in about the same terms
and that is one of the more sobering scripture quotations