Demos conducted a nationwide survey of low- and middle-income households in early 2012. The findings in this brief summarize the relationship between college costs and credit card debt, and its impact on students and their parents.
Fast food companies keep employees at poverty-level wages while reaping billions of dollars in profits. It drives inequality, slows growth, and lowers living standards.
This report makes the case that we should create jobs for the unemployed directly and immediately in public employment programs that produce useful goods and services for the public’s benefit.
Twelve years after starting college, white men have paid off 44% of their student loan balances on average, while black men saw their balances grow by 11%, according to an analysis from Demos.
Twelve years after starting college, the white female borrower has paid off 72% of her loan balance. Over the same time period, the typical Black female borrower's balance has grown by 13%.
"Imagine any financial transaction you make and someone says the price of this thing is $100,000, but you are very likely to pay nothing, but first you have to fill out all these forms."
3 out of 4 senior households lack the economic security needed to sustain them through their lives, according to new study
New York, NY — Older Americans have experienced huge, negative financial shifts that now make it more difficult to enter retirement with sustainable economic security, a new study finds. Seventy-eight percent of all senior households are financially vulnerable when it comes to their ability to meet essential expenses and cover projected costs over their lifetimes.
Proposal to Expand Funding for Low-Income Students; Increased Access to Federal Loan Program
New York, NY — Demos, a national, non-partisan, public policy and advocacy organization, in partnership with twelve national organizations representing students, colleges, consumers, and college administrators, sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday calling for increased investment in college affordability and reducing financial barriers for entry into post-secondary education.
“This is a microcosm of many intra-progressive, intra-left policy debates—whether it’s better to do something universal and achieve something with relative ease or ensure that only those struggling by some definition get relief."
An executive action for student debt cancellation would provide much needed economic relief to millions of Black and Latinx families in order to avoid financial catastrophe during the continuing global pandemic.
“The student debt crisis is yet another example of the deep and structural racial injustice at that heart of our economy. It prevents Black and Brown families from building wealth and economic power and has undermined the fundamental goal of higher education as a public good."
The response to the COVID-19 crisis must include investments in public goods and health infrastructure, breaking up concentrated economic power, and equitable access for Black and brown communities.
