Bailout for Homeowners

As many of you know, the United states is in one of the biggest economic recessions--or so we are told--of the century. Recently there has been legislation to help ease the tension on the banks, on the auto industry, and on wall street. Now the bailout comes to the real estate industry. According to the new package being rolled out by Obama Administration, Interest rates on mortgages could be refinanced for interest rates as low as 2%.

What is the cost to do this, 75 billion in taxpayer dollars... Recently the value of a billion has been played down so let me put this into perspective. 1 billion is 1000 millions. Therefore 75 billion dollars is 75,000 millions, or nearly enough to pay for the entire state of Oklahoma to go to college.

75 Billion dollars going towards what? Towards some people who genuinely are in trouble and need help. But also going to people who planned poorly and are now being bailed out by the government. According to the New York Times the package could help people who owe as much as $730,000 on their mortgage payment (NY TIMES.)

Do you agree with this law, If you do great! but if you don't you need to talk to your congressman. Let him/her know what you think and how you feel. He/She is there to represent you, make sure they are doing their job.

Stimulus Package?

In the video above from CNN, you will see Rep. Schock explaining his reasons for voting against the stimulus bill, that has already been passed. He estimates that it is less than 8% stimulus, meaning that out of the almost 1 trillion tax dollars that are being spent only 8% will be used to stimulate the economy.

After looking at the bill myself, there seems to be a large amount of government spending that is geared more towards updating the government than helping the economy. For instance it is written into the bill that 600 million dollars will be set aside for the purchasing of hybrid vehicles for various governmental figures. Not exactly a stimulating factor for the economy. If would like to read for yourself, you can find a full copy of the law here, or if you would like a more simple breakdown of the pieces of the bill look here.

Another thing I would like to point out is that, this money will have to be paid back in due time, which means that within the next ten years taxes will go up, or the national deficit will increase even more, moving our country even more into debt.

There is much to be done, and as demonstrated by the representative in the video, you do have a voice. Contact your Representatives and Senators, they will do what the majority of their constituents want. They want to be re-elected, so make them work for you.

Tuition Freezes

According to Oklahoma College Start Organization (Okcollegestart.org) the average cost for instate residents to obtain 30 credit hours of undergraduate credit is estimated to be $14,472. This number has been on the rise and recently the Oklahoma Board of Regents (Okhighered.org) has approved an average raise of 8.6% in the cost of tuition for Oklahoma colleges. This means that, on average, the students that would like to attend classes next semester will be paying about $208 dollars more than what they would have been paying last semester ([average tuition+average fees]*[8.6%]/2).1

If this rising tuition continues on the current trend tuition will quickly be out of the reach of many middle class families. And with this problem occuring all around the United States, it is not just an Oklahoman problem but a nation problem. This problem is caused by an unstable economy and several other factors, the solutions must deal with these factors and cure the heart of the problem.

But it is likely that the long term solutions will take... well a long time. So, what is the solution for families that are about to send one of there children off to college now? They may not be able to afford to wait for the effects of these long term solutions. They must rely on the government to take action to help them now or the United states may have a generation of adults that were forsaken my the government to have middle class jobs.

The more immediate patch work solution to this problem is tuition freezes. These tuition freezes would cause a number of instant effects that would releve some of the pressure on the working class families. First of all it would obviously help by stopping tuition from going up, this would provide a stability that has been absent in recent years. As the website for Diverse Issues in Higher Education notes, "Student leaders have come to expect tuition prices to go up every year" (DiverseEducation.com). Simply put, students have become accustomed to having to pay more for an education every year. But now some students are having their educations put in jeopardy by these new tuition raises. If the tuition continues to go up by as much as it did this year than students can expect to pay are 25% more for tuition than what they paid for their first year. So if a student started out paying $10,000 a year for tuition they could expect that amount to go up to $12,808.24 for there final year of college.2  This could cause some students to be able to afford college at the start but then not be able to finish.

This new found stability in the cost of college would also allow for students to be able to plan their expenses in a more effecient manner.  For instance now that a college student knows what the price of college will be, they can make plans and set aside or obtain the proper amount of money. In the current situation this is not possible. The same $10,000 may not be enough for the next year of schooling. 

Overall tuition freezes are a good idea for the short term. It will allow stability for students who are already in college, as well as helping to keep tuition prices bearable for prospective students. While this short term "patch work fix" is in place the nation economy can be stabilized and some of those wide reaching large factors that cause tuition fluxuation can be sorted out and brought to a stable level. These things can only be accomplished if you call your state legislator and get in contact will lawmakers in your region. Things will only change if you make yourself heard, so contact your state legisture, contact your governor, and let them know how you feel.

1. all numbers used in the calculation were taken from okcollegestart.org for the 2008-2009 school year tuition.

2. calculation was carried out like this (.086*10000), (result of first calc.*.086), etc.

Tester

This is the first post of my blog, it has pretty much no meaning besides to see what it would look like on my actual blog. I think i will brain storm a bit to see what topics I would like to put on the blog. 

1. First of all I have to put my personal view of politics and such
2. I should probably also put my opinions on hot social topics: movies, news headings, etc.
3. I could probably put some good satirical spins on every day subjects
4. comment on video games
5. talk about my classes at ou
6. test
   

All in all I think i'll just pour out my thoughts on anything that randomly comes into my mind, hopefully it turns out to be at least mildly interesting but if it turns out to be boring, oh well it will fit in with the other ninty nine percent of blogs.

keep reading,

-Jeff