@Dungareedoll Your assumptions here are wrong. It is expected that families have savings and are paying part of the tuition from the savings and not entirely from their current paychecks.
@doschicos CS/engineering and maybe business/econ. Even for these majors, if there are good in-state options such as Cal/UCLA/UCSD (13K) there is no point in paying 45K for a name brand private college.
“collegedad you are trivializing a very serious problem with the cost of education” @say no I am not trivializing it. The reason college costs are so high is that it costs money to provide good education. The one percenters refuse to pay their fair share so the government can subsidize the cost of college education. They would rather have more bombs and weapons than paying for free college education. I find it very sad and pathetic. Free public college education would cost 10 per cent of the military budget
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/18/290868013/how-the-cost-of-college-went-from-affordable-to-sky-high.
So no I am not drinking too much Kool Aide. I am just commenting on the rampant greed that surrounds us and prevents all of us from having affordable college educations
Please stop perpetuating the myth that $200k are 1% ers. $450k is top 1%. huge difference.
@collegedad13 , you should stop telling other ppl what their effective tax rate is, you have no idea. It is entirely possible to be WELL in excess of 20% you suggest bc of AMT. My effective tax rate IS the higher AMT rate. Then I pay NYS, which is not deductible under AMT. 7%. so 28% Fed, plus 7% state = 35%. Then of course there is SSI and medicare of 7.65%…
You also do not know ppl’s property tax bills. My house is worth about $900k in the NYC area, a relatively small house on an 1/8 acre lot. Taxes? $21k. Town taxes may be 1.2ish…then county tax, school tax. They sit on top of one another.
Not asking you to feel sorry for me. Just asking you to stop telling others what their experience is, bc you don’t know unless you are them.
collegedad your argument is patently false. Claiming the increase in college tuition is the fault of the affluent parents and stating that they prefer bombs and weapons is very offensive. Can you explain why UCLA has more administrators than students? Nothing in life is free and free college would be a complete disaster. Right now one of the biggest problems in the US is that huge numbers of marginal students are running up debt in colleges getting valueless degrees. Making college free is a silly idea and was totally rejected by Sec Clinton as totally unworkable. You are making a purely partisan Sen Sanders socialistic argument that ignores the very real problems of massive college debt.
http://time.com/money/4168510/why-student-loan-crisis-is-worse-than-people-think/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-17/student-debt-in-america-has-hit-a-new-record
@hrsmom I live in California and I own multiple pieces of real property. So I do know what property tax bills are in California. They run around 1.2 per cent per year Also SSI and medicare apply to about the first 120k not 200k. Medicare at 1.65 has no caps. I have worked on lots of tax related projects. As a general rule some one who pays 35 per cent of a 200k salary on taxes is not doing a very good job of tax planning and probably needs a new CPA. The average is around 20 per cent. Lots of people who make 200k pay no taxes. You are correct that 200k does not make you a one percenter and I never said it did. 200k puts you in the top three percent of all incomes.
@say no my argument is not “patently false” I never claimed the increase in college tuition is the fault of the affluent. If you read carefully my argument it is that the increase in college tuition is the result of lack of government funding. I also find it very offensive that people would prefer to pay for bombs and weapons through their taxes rather than college education… Making college education free may be silly to you but it is not silly to the majority and tens of millions of Americans. 62 per cent of Americans do not believe that students should be saddled with student debt.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/poll-most-support-making-college-free/article/2572333
I do agree massive college debt is a huge problem. I have offered a solution
on second thought, totally not worth responding to.
Following to learn how a lot of people who make $200K avoid paying taxes. So far I’ve only heard about one.
@hrsmom are you a tax lawyer or a CPA? I am licensed to practice in front of the US tax court and have been for almost 20 years. Are you? I never said I know other peoples specific experiences but I have the professional, educational and experience expertise to talk in generalities. So please tell me how I know a thimble of tax compared to you. I am most curious. The real problem is that I believe college should be free and many don’t.
I don’t judge others. I try to stick to the facts .
Tax lawyer, so not just tax court. 27 years now…you are totally judging. you just don’t recognize it.
@Ballerina016 is this the one you were thinking about
Lawyer, 37 years now. So I guess reasonable people can disagree
Yes we can. but cool it on the political stuff or this thread will get closed!!! :)>-
I agree totally with the last comment. :)>-
collegedad I know hundreds of people making 200k or so and not one of them pays zero taxes. You should retract this statement because it is untrue. Now you may have meant no federal income taxes but that is a pretty major mistake for someone who claims to be a tax attorney. I’m sure it’s technically possible to pay no federal income taxes on 200k of taxable income but it’s so exceedingly rare as to be meaningless on this site. By the way your argument that the 4-5 X over inflation increase in tuition is the fault of lack of government funding is ludicrous. Are you going to claim the Ivy League School tuition increase is from the lack of government payments? As for the state schools you still haven’t answered why UCLA/UCB have as many administrators as students. The argument for making state college educations free just doesn’t withstand serious scrutiny. Who would decide the rules? Are you advocating to cover the tuition for students who are barely literate just because they want to go to college? How many years would you cover? Would you cover room and board? Is there a minimum grade point? Would you pay for 4 years, 5 or unlimited? Would you cover any major including ones that have poor job prospects? Are you arguing that this is as important as funding Medicare and SS both of which have massive looming deficits approaching over 100 trillion dollars. You certainly seem very generous with the tax payor’s money. collegedad it was nothing more than a vote gathering campaign slogan. The USA has a 20 trillion dollar debt and adding another 100 billion dollar boondoggle would be a disaster. The biggest problem we have today is that far too many marginally qualified students are accumulating debt with little or no return. The truth is that 60-70% of the HS are not suitable for college material.
But I do agree with HRSMom about changing the topic and moving on. Reasonable people can have different views.
This thread has jumped the shark.
CA94309 @ I do want to add one thing…Just because someone is making $200K at the time their child attends college doesn’t mean that that was the salary the family had all along. For most people thats a build up of 20 years of working. So when people say things like " It is expected that families have savings and are paying part of the tuition from the savings and not entirely from their current paychecks." its very annoying. I agree that people with decent salaries and a home can most probably take a line of credit or a second mortgage but that’s still a huge financial drain. Of course a private school education is also a luxury, not a necessity. So I’m not expecting anyone to be sympathetic but its obnoxious to think that anything is “expected”. That’s just not that much money.
Collegedad@ speaking from personal experience my thread was completely true and fact based. If you know of some way to pay less tax than let me know, I would love to hear it. But where I live those are the numbers, plain and simple.
As for free education well thats just ridiculous. Very few people can ever appreciate the true value of something that is just handed to them. No one should ever get a free education. Are people entitled to an education? Absolutely, but then they should take out loans, just like the rest of us.
Well, students K-12 in this country and college for many people around the world comes “free” and I don’t think it goes unappreciated.
Many people DO save for college over 18 years on lesser salaries than $200K, though, even in California. It’s a matter of priorities and living below one’s means, though.
doschicos@ that’s a matter of opinion. But the fact is that someone who has to work for their education will more than likely think twice before they squander it away. I’m sure there are some getting a free ride who will appreciate it. However, the pattern that we have witnessed was that most do not.
Lastly, I’m not saying you can’t save for college at all, but when college COA over 4 years exceeds a quarter of a million dollars, then its very difficult to put anything away of true significance, not to mention most families have more than one child. So the bottom line is that its not a walk in the park.
I’m not asking for any sympathy, I just detest when people make it sound like a $200K salary is so wealthy that paying a private school education is an easy feat. Its not, its a struggle.
In most of those countries, access to college is rationed to high achieving students. It is appreciated precisely because the students had to compete to get them. Effectively, they are merit scholarships sponsored by all taxpayers.
There is no way such a rationed access approach to college could work in the US.