4 ms·
The people who struggle to pay back student loans aren't the upper middle class borrowers, and there's plenty of middle class and even lower class students (try
by lamontcg 3y ago
The people who struggle to pay back student loans aren't the upper middle class borrowers, and there's plenty of middle class and even lower class students (trying to do that whole american dream thing) who are saddled with debt.
Yeah here's the breakdown, this is the mean amount of debt held per household by income percentile, with 25-40 years old broken out as an age category:
Income Percentile (%) All Households -Age 25-40 Households
0-9.9 $3,633.61 $9,656.34
10-19.9 $3,285.49 $8,245.48
20-29.9 $6,035.88 $11,804.46
30-39.9 $7,401.99 $12,059.02
40-49.9 $9,796.45 $20,744.43
50-59.9 $9,814.08 $16,905.26
60-69.9 $11,750.67 $28,708.72
70-79.9 $13,999.30 $27,615.90
80-89.9 $13,887.24 $27,382.43
90-94.9 $9,727.94 $18,273.48
95-98.9 $4,655.90 $11,178.10
99-100 $3,156.78 $62,532.52
Here's the breakdown of the percentage of households that have student loans:
Income Percentile (%) Percentage with Student Loans Percentage of 25-40 with Student Loans
0-9.9 14.0% 26.6%
10-19.9 13.7% 30.6%
20-29.9 17.4% 36.3%
30-39.9 19.8% 32.2%
40-49.9 24.8% 49.1%
50-59.9 25.7% 45.2%
60-69.9 24.0% 49.2%
70-79.9 29.9% 47.3%
80-89.9 27.0% 44.9%
90-94.9 24.5% 34.2%
95-98.9 10.7% 18.1%
99-100 8.2% 45.0%
https://dqydj.com/average-student-loan-debt-united-states/ https://dqydj.com/average-student-loan-debt-united-states/
I'd say those distributions show a pretty broadly "middle-class" millennial issue, with a lot of overlap.
- sanderjd 3y agoThe forgiveness was not targeted at people who struggle to pay back their loans. It was a blanket forgiveness with a very high income ceiling. I would have qualified for it and I qualify for essentially no other kind of government subsidy. But it kind of had to be a high ceiling to have the desired political impact, because it targets people who attended college, which is a demographic that skews affluent. Your numbers are exactly what I'm talking about. That distribution is middle to upper middle class skewed. I might have been more supportive of it with a lower income cap. But I still think improving the income based repayment program - which I just read is one of Biden's new proposals! - is a much better way to do this without it being regressive.
- lamontcg 3y agoBlanket forgiveness has a much higher likelihood of being accepted. Means testing is a great way to kill programs. Also 75th percentile income is only $88k which is certainly not upper middle class wages these days, and that is right around where the distribution of money/household gets a bit fatter. "Middle class" isn't really 50th percentile any more these days.
- sanderjd 3y agoI agree, but that political calculus doesn't impact my personal assessment of whether I think it's a good policy. > "Middle class" isn't really 50th percentile any more these days. I don't get it, why not? It does seem to be true that everyone from like the 25th to the 95th percentile thinks they are "middle class". But I don't buy it.
- lamontcg 3y agoBecause of the Gini index and rising wealth and income inequality. Although 95th percentilers do all like to claim they have middle class values and were all self-made millionaires. Doesn't change the fact that the middle class is getting hollowed out.
- sanderjd 3y agoI'm struggling a bit to put two and two together here. Maybe it would help if you could tell me what you think "middle class" should mean. And I think because it has come up in this thread as well, also where "upper middle class" is. I think the obvious thing to do is to define it by income percentiles, but you don't seem happy with that (or maybe you just disagree on what the floor and ceiling of the percentiles should be?), and I'm open to the idea that something else matters more.