Facebook Publication Date: 8/9/2018 12:08

Please note: this draft only. Not finished. On phone.

But this is a comment that’s too long to hang on the original thread, and I didn’t want to wait.

On Casey and Tracy

I sort of get how this can be seen as an over simplification, but I can also see how the quickness to dismiss the overall point is telling, and concerning, as well.

Let’s think about it, using language you may be more willing to accept. Bearing this in mind as well, your clench at how you felt the idea was presented, and my additional labor in trying to find examples that are palatable to you is a function of privilege. You understood the point; you just felt the need to undermine it. Still, I feel this is important enough to really talk about.

First though, I am going to do a hypothetical case study that can show how targeted financial interventions, both positive and negative, however seemingly modest, can change trajectories. This is a fictional example, totally cut from whole cloth in my head. But it does draw on personal experience. I am not going to talk about people getting houses custom built for them (though I know two people for whom that’s true). Nor am I gonna talk about really big numbers, because yes, that can skew.

But 50k ain’t all that much. Here in So Cal, it takes twice that to do a down payment on a middle market house. And in the public radio (California Report) piece from yesterday, a real estate broker noted that 25% of the contracts she was writing had family money.

I am already seeing pushback on this meme, here and on my personal page. And I suspect it’s not just about the veracity of the meme. There is a lot to get activated about.

But back to this. I want to think about two hypothetical women. Since I’m making them up, I can play around a little, but both come from real life; they’re composites. Both are 35, will be teachers in the same school; both will drive Hondas, both will like York Peppermint Patties (wait, that’s me. Heh.)

I am not going to make for wild fluctuations. Let’s look at their lives for 10 years or so.

Casey (Black Woman) is in her 5th year teaching in a suburban school. She has her credential, but not her Master’s. She makes 50k. She lives about 15 miles away from the school, in a rental condo where she pays 1500 a month rent. She pays another 300 a month payment for her car. She pays about 400 a month for her student loans. Casey worked full time for 10 years after high school, going to school at the same time. She could not get her hours flexed when it was time to student teach, so she had to quit her job. To stay afloat, she took out a personal loan from her credit union for 10k so she could student teach for a semester; another 200 per month. Her mother lives a few miles away, and Casey lives where she does to be close to her mother. Her mother pretty much takes care of herself, but Casey quietly picks up the gas and electric and the cable bill for her; about 350 a month , and never asks for reimbursements for copays or groceries when she runs errands; another 200 a month or so; she also has her mother (and her two sisters) on her cell plan; another 200. No one talks about it; it’s just part of being a good daughter. She set up a quiet fund where she puts money aside to help her mother when she needs it, but sometimes draws on that to keep herself afloat. During the summer Casey works one or two part time jobs that bring in another 2k or so. Casey would love to become a Lead Teacher one day, but it requires a Master’s, and she can’t see a way to fit that in. Her monthly expenses are about 3700, counting for gas and food/self care for herself. She is counting on a pension for her retirement; no chance to put anything away in a 401(A); no savings for if anything goes wrong. Her yearly expenses are about 47000 before taxes she knows she will have to pay every year, because she is single and does not own a home, so she just takes the standard deduction. She just got a notice that this year’s lease will have the rent at 1650.

Tracy (White Woman) also a teacher, went to the same school and got comparable grades to Casey. Parents invested in a condo near campus for which they paid the 1200 mortgage, which was totally covered by Tracy’s roommates. Tracy was allowed to keep the 1400 combined rent paid by the two roommates as allowance. Utilities and cable went to the parents. Tracy never had to work, so she had time to do resume enhancing orgs and activities, and still finished in 3 years. In the next year, got her credential, and was in the classroom at 24. She was fast tracked into Lead Teacher due to her advanced degree. Tracy has made an income adjusted income since then of about 65k a year. She no longer has roommates, but she also does not have a mortgage. Even though she could easily pay the utilities, her parents say it’s ‘easier’ to keep things as they are, including keeping her on their cell plan. It’s easy for Tracy to cut the check for the approx. 4k in property taxes; which she does in one lump sum, which works out to a little over 300 a month in housing expenses. She maxes out her pension fund. Her yearly expenses including her fully funding her 401A, and her IRA are less than her income; which enables her to go on trips and ‘staycation’ during the summer. She fights to pick up the check at dinner, but her dad always ‘wins’. Casey’s car, a gift from her parents when she got her Master’s is acting funny lately. She decides to trade it in for a new car, on which she was able to put 10k down, and her family helped with the rest, so she has a 250 payment which she plans to pay off fast.

So far, I think I have given a fairly realistic example.

I could go on, and talk about the inheritance that allowed Tracy to get into a single family home a few years later. And how Casey was given the opportunity to buy her condo, but at an inflated interest rate because it’s in a redlined area of town. We could talk about how Tracy became a principal, because she had the time and the means to further her education and concentrate on administration. We could talk about a similar opportunity for Casey, about which she has been ambivalent, because it would take her out of union protection, and she has seen what has sometimes happened to brown and black administrators. We could talk about Casey’s mom getting sick one summer, which meant Casey had to be there and forgo her summer income, even as caring for her mother got more expensive. We could talk about Tracy’s marriage, which effectively more than doubled her household income.

And we could talk about Tracy’s bewilderment and frustration when Casey is never available for drinks, or her hurt when Casey reluctantly demurred when offered a place in her bridal party at a destination location.

Because they *are* friends. And good ones. And have never talked about any of this.

Post here or on the original thread. I really want responses.

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