Latest news with #middle class
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Britain's failed water system won't be fixed by penalising wealthier users
SIR – You report (July 20) that the Government could consider charging the middle classes more for their water in order to subsidise poorer households. It set me wondering where such manipulation of commodity prices – an indirect form of tax – might end. By this warped logic, could the middle class also be lumbered with higher gas and electricity prices, or more expensive food? The possibilities are endless. The Government would be able to claim it was sticking to its pre-election pledge not to increase taxes on working people – even working middle-class people. It would just increase costs to the working middle class under a different name. Terry Lloyd Darley Abbey, Derbyshire SIR – Middle-class households are being expected to subsidise others more and more. Paying higher water bills is now being proposed. Surely, however, the time will come when they can't afford to do this. Indeed, that time may have already arrived. Laura Madden Broughton Astley, Leicestershire SIR – My wife and I are both now retired, but were formerly working-class. We own our property and rely on our pension income, with no additional benefits. We pay our dues. I worry that, because we have been prudent throughout our 60 years of marriage, we will be categorised as middle-class by this class-obsessed Government. Why should we be charged more for our water supply in order to subsidise low-income families? They should be responsible for settling their outgoings in the same manner as pensioners and the middle classes. If our welfare system continues on its current trajectory, the desire to take up employment will become a thing of the past. We are already on the downward slope towards mass unemployment. John Hinchsliff Longridge, Lancashire SIR – I empathise with Robin Willow (Letters, July 20) over his increased Thames Water bills, but would add that the current pricing structure applied by that company penalises low users. The fixed charges for supply and waste have risen significantly, resulting in massively increased bills for those of us who use the least water. How can this be fair? Barry Sheldon Cholsey, Oxfordshire SIR – It appears that hydrangeas have joined the ranks of middle-class targets in Labour's war on perceived privilege. With peak water rates cunningly aligned with the flowering season, one must ask: where will all this end? Dermot Shortt Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trying to Pay for College? Your Options Just Got Worse
The message from the Trump administration to working-class Americans who want to go to college is: You're on your own. It is part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's broad effort to scale back spending on the poor and middle class in order to finance tax breaks for the rich. It's also a dramatic reversal in the American compact with higher education that enshrines into law a flawed policy that will discourage college enrollment among a generation of lower-income Americans. For a century, the US has improved its global competitiveness by cultivating a higher education system that creates a talented and skilled workforce. As vast as the US higher education system is, however, it has fallen short. Costs are soaring, public trust is declining, and universities aren't meeting the needs of high-impact professions like engineering, which must recruit talent from other countries because the US is not producing enough graduates. On top of these concerns, the prospect of rising college costs — and a shrinking earnings premium for degree-holders — has many high school students rejecting the traditional four-year pathways and increasingly turning to trade schools for their future careers.
