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Living in the suburbs, I benefit from well-maintained roads to take me to work and good public schools for my children to attend. I benefit from auto emissions testing to help control pollution. My partner in a previous relationship was disabled and we benefited from social security benefits. (Although it took years for them to be processed and we would have been up the creek without a paddle if she hadn't also had disability insurance.) These benefits are greater for the middle class and above -- we can afford cars and the schools in our area are sufficiently funded.
As a working class student, financial aid has assisted my attending a private university. Although this government assistance has benefited me, it does not benefit us as much as is possible. Attending college without going into debt is becoming more and more difficult where you have to be on either ends of the class spectrum to go without thousands of dollars of loans over your head.
My family can't afford health insurance but we make too much to qualify for state/Medicaid programs. This forces us to put one necessity before another. Going to the dentist when someone has a cavity or using the same money to buy food to last through the week. I feel like a part of our nation has been forgotten.
G.I. Bill, home and education....health care too....
When I was attending 5 different colleges, I was able to get large loans because of low income. Without loans, I wouldn't have been able to attend college. My student loans enabled me to achieve both a bachelor's degree and a masters degree.
When we bought our house and took out a mortgage, we were able to deduct the amount of interest we paid on our mortgage from our taxes each year. This is a middle class housing subsidy. The larger our house/mortgage the bigger our deduction. Also, when I ran my own consulting business I could deduct a whole lot of things from my taxes including business lunches, gifts, my cell phone (used for business), etc.
When I had a good corporate job, the amount of money I could save on taxes for child care through having my employer set up a "flexible spending account" was almost three times higher than the Child Care credit a person who does not have access to this benefit can claim. This means that my friend who worked cleaning hotels earned less, paid the same amount for child care as me and got less credit for it from the government.
I think about being a college student. I went to a public college because it was significantly less expensive than a private institution. I applied for and received federal aid each year I attended. If there was no government assistance available, I might not have been able to go. There is little stigma attached to federal student aid; but there is a notion that public schools are somehow inferior to private.
Currently I am on Social Security Disability for depression. There is definitely stigma against anyone not making their way on their own (unless they've inherited wealth and then it seems to be okay). I make very little on disability because it was based on what I'd been able to make all my working life, which wasn't much because I was always handicapped by chronic depression since childhood and couldn't handle working more than part-time. So Social Security payments based on your earlier earnings just go with the "rich get richer, poor stay poorer" way things go.
We receive government subsidies for owning a home, mainly through tax write-offs. Also, as small business owners we could write off some things that also offer us some sort of personal benefit.
I have received benefits including WIC coupons, Earned Income Credit, educational tax incentives, homeowners tax benefits, and probably more that I do not think of.
Financial aid for school is easier to access if you have the expectation that you deserve it (entitlement) and the educational background needed to apply successfully for it. Counselors at middle class schools are better equipped to help students apply for financial aid, and middle class parents have more time to help their children to apply and are more aware of the various financial aid opportunities out there.
Read earlier survey responses:
February 2006: How do class differences impact your relationships?
January 2006: What privileges should we all have?
Are there any privileges none of us should have?
December 2005 Survey Question:
How do class issues come up for you during the end-of-year "consumer" holidays?
November 2005 Survey Question: Please tell us about your experiences of class, class differences, and classism in your education/school.
October 2005: Tell us about a time you've either been an ally to someone or had someone be an ally to you around issues of class.
September 2005: What are the ways you see the race and class divisions exposed by Katrina?
August 2005: What class did you grow up in? What was good or bad about your class experience growing up?
July 2005: What are your strongest memories connecting race and class?
June 2005: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each ran their own series on class. What is your response to the recent press on class?
May 2005: The good, the bad, and the ugly of cross-class relating
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