Now: @lasattysunited Chair at @alaa2325 | Then: public defender, Fellow @thesbpc | Always: GBM widow, fighting to #cancelstudentdebt, mighty @uaw | she/her
Joined September 2012
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Every union in America could build a student loan assistance fund like ours in @UAWRegion9A. Education is a human right, like healthcare & a just retirement. It's a core labor issue. Debt is the biggest boss there is. Let's fight it. /3
region9a.uaw.org/edfund
This is exactly why I believe in us and our organizing. Because we know exactly how high the stakes are and what it means to fight for our lives.
Millennials watched their parents lose everything in 2008. Then got handed $100k in student debt. Then got called entitled for wanting a living wage.
Then survived a pandemic in our prime years. Then got priced out of every neighborhood we grew up in. And y’all really wonder why we’re not okay? We’ve been in survival mood for 20years straight and nobody even noticed.
You know what we didn't spend on before the 1980s? Higher Ed, public universities had low or even $0 tuition. Retirement, when union density was high, many had quality pensions and great healthcare for life. It's been studied! It's not the avocado toast my dude!
Seeing lots of these types of posts. And I agree, life is obviously much more expensive these days.
But I'm wondering if anyone has done a study comparing what people were buying week in and out in the 70's and 80's versus today?
I remember growing up, I got to buy 2 things of any value each year! My birthday and Christmas. That was it, and it wasn't a massive item either. Maybe got a little pocket money, but I had to work a high-school job to have anything. The TV was swapped out every 10 yrs. A holiday was a road trip. Clothes were looked after, some passed down. A restaurant was maybe once a month and a bagged lunch to school/work. And even with this, there wasn't much money left over. It was no picnic.
Today, families (including mine) seem to buy all sorts of shit daily. The money flows like water. Coffees daily, order in 2-4 times weekly, restaurants and cocktails, 5 streaming plans, phones for all, flat-screen every room, to lazy to mow own grass, uber everywhere, one car per adult, clothes swapped frequently, renovations often, international trips, etc etc
So when we talk about housing affordability, how much of this is choice/preference?
Where did bailing out banks in 2008, failing to tax the rich, weakening unions, and not doing Medicare for all, free college, universal childcare and mass transit get us? It got us here.
I'm in my 40s. I'm a lawyer. My wife is a lawyer. We both work full time.
We cannot afford the house my parents purchased on a single electrician's income in their 30s.
We cannot afford the house my immigrant grandparents purchased on a single MTA bus driver's salary in their 30s. They had SIX CHILDREN.
For 30 years, politicians in Washington & their oligarch allies convinced regular people that this was just about avocado toast and fancy coffee.
In reality, this is end-stage capitalism. Everyone is stuck in place. It's impossible to buy a home. It's too costly to move. We work too much to have passion projects. We don't have enough savings to start our own businesses. We can't afford to go without healthcare to do it.
Thanks for writing this article @troy_closson. Would be very happy to discuss further.
nytimes.com/2026/10/25/nyreg…
This is really the heart of it all, "borrowers swapped unsecured student debt for a wealth-building asset." When student debts were cancelled, working class Americans had money to BUILD WEALTH. And isn't fighting inequality the whole dang point?
Jane Fox 🟥 retweeted
Some of the clearest evidence that the more student debt you cancel, the better off families and the economy is.
Debt activists have been saying this for years. Cancellation is *GOOD* for the economy. Homeownership and credit scores rose for Americans who had their student debt cancelled. Things won't feel AFFORDABLE until debts are gone. Every Dem should call for full scale cancellation.
There's no addressing affordability if you're not dealing with debt.
An entire generation is being saddled with debt to a degree like no other. Student loans, credit cards, less financial security and with a growing sense that the American economy doesn’t deliver. Gen-Z needs a debt abolition agenda.
politico.com/news/magazine/2…
Louisiana has the second highest incarceration rate on planet Earth. Angola prison is a plantation. And yet beauty and art will persist even there against all odds through humans like Gary Tyler.
Gary Tyler, a quilt artist who spent decades on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, now has his first solo exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum npr.org/2026/10/21/nx-s1-600…
Jane Fox 🟥 retweeted
sounds like buyers took risk. maybe the Treasury should hire a series of private debt collectors and use the full force of the law to collect these erroneous debts because they signed a contract. surely they aren't worthy of a bailout right? this is a tweet about student debt
"Speculative data center debt is being repackaged and sold to pension and retirement funds, university endowments, and other institutional investors in a manner eerily reminiscent of the subprime bubble."
ourfinancialsecurity.org/res…
Jane Fox 🟥 retweeted
The UAW is prioritizing must-win races in districts where the union’s membership density exceeds recent margins of victory:
•MI Senate: Abdul El-Sayed
•MI CD-04, 07, 08, & 10
•OH Senate: Sherrod Brown
•OH CD-07 & 09
•PA CD-07
•IA CD-01 & 02
•Gov races: MI, OH
Jane Fox 🟥 retweeted
10 million Americans can't afford their student loans.
Now Trump wants to hire private debt collectors to seize their wages, Social Security checks and tax refunds.
This is INSANE.
We need tuition-free public college, not a government that punishes people for struggling.
Trump administration officials are preparing to impose financial penalties on millions of Americans in default on their federal student loans next year, according to five sources familiar with the matter.
washingtonsun.com/economy/tr…
Jane Fox 🟥 retweeted
This admin recently stripped away the ability from Americans to borrow enough student loan money to get a nursing degree
& now they’re whining about their own actions & the crisis they’ve caused?
RFK Jr. warns that a nationwide shortage of more than 50,000 nurses has become a healthcare crisis, hitting rural America especially hard.
Now, HHS is taking action to address the shortage and strengthen healthcare in underserved communities.
“Nurses here in Virginia, there is a deficit of 1,700 nurses.”
“Across the country, it’s over 50,000.”
“It is a genuine health crisis, particularly in rural areas.”
“It’s a priority for the president. We’re addressing it.”
“You’re going to hear a series of announcements over the next couple of weeks, but we’re already addressing this through expanded rural residencies and federally qualified health centers.”
Time to give the people what they really want, a chart reading/political analysis collaboration between @MichaelLangeNYC and @chaninicholas.
Jane Fox 🟥 retweeted
Then how do you explain @MOHELA
Federal student aid is intended to expand educational opportunities, not line the pockets of fraudsters who steal from students pursuing their education and hardworking taxpayers. The Trump Administration will not tolerate criminals who exploit government programs for personal gain. Treasury is working with financial institutions and law enforcement to identify these fraud schemes, recover stolen funds, and hold those responsible accountable.
Truly so excited to see @NYCMayor making debt reduction part of his affordability agenda. Time to lock in and do student debt next.
Homeowners and small businesses, are you stuck under a pile of debt you owe to the city? This is your chance to get back in good standing and move forward.
With DEBT DEMOLISHER, you have until January 10, 2027 to pay off city debt at DISCOUNTED RATES and clear interest.
Check your eligibility now at nyc.gov/debtdemolisher
People love to say if we canceled student debt, taxpayers would pay. It's actually the opposite. We're paying now. $350 million to just one company to collect money that isn't being paid back. 40% of grads are not paying their loans. Cancellation is CHEAPER.
Since he did a campaign event upstate last year with AOC, my money has been on Pat Ryan running in 2030.
