Category: Working Class Economist

This item is about the money you can save drinking at home instead of at a bar. I’ll keep this brief because, let’s be honest, if you’re interested in reading an article solely about the price of bar drinks you might not be on this blog in the first place. By now you know some…

It happens at least a handful of times every week: I talk Math and nobody listens. By Math, I mean what politics really boils down to: fundraising, economic clashes, working class versus rich, unions versus corporations, simplified to the extreme: money. The political feud between Democrats and Republicans isn’t some lofty war of morals like…

If I’d heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times: “Tax cuts for the rich create jobs.” But if the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are extended it will plunge America further into debt? “Tax cuts for the rich create jobs.” But in the ten years the Bush tax cuts have been in…

Short answer: Not a damn thing. Long answer: No really, not a damn thing. The House Republicans (as Now What? pointed out above) have passed a new budget for the next year that is pretty much…what’s the right word…awful in its treatment of everyone who isn’t super rich. They want to cut Pell grants for…

I’ll keep this short as the one thing I know Republicans will come on here and comment about is abortion. The wealthy conservatives that actually control the Republican Party won’t really care enough to comment on millionaire tax breaks or will sidestep the drama of having to actually talk to a working class person. However,…

This feature could just as easily be on Now What? but today I want to cover Underwater Degrees. Most of you may have heard the term “Underwater Mortgage” used to describe houses that are in more mortgage debt than they will ever be worth. I’ve coined the phrase Underwater Degrees to refer to degrees that…

Last week I encouraged people to ditch their credit card for anything but the most extreme of situations—and there aren’t many—in order to avoid the cancer sweeping the nation: credit card debt. This week I’m asking you to ditch your bank. Not any bank you might have, but a very specific variety: the one that…

Welcome to Working Class Economist, a feature that will take a look at the economy through the people most affected by it but so rarely mentioned by policy wonks discussing interest rates or credit default swaps: people making less than 60,000 a year. Today’s feature is all in the title: the abusive relationship you have…