The AOC Way by Caroline Fredrickson

Author:Caroline Fredrickson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510752092
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2019-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

Several of Crowley’s attorneys got assigned the work of administering the estates of those who had died without wills, making millions in the process. In fact, one of them, Gerard Sweeney, who served as counsel to the public administrator of the court from 2006 to 2017, took home $30 million.88

Her mother’s job as a domestic worker cleaning houses and as a bus driver didn’t bring in much money for the family to survive on, especially with her father’s estate tied up in probate and whatever little money was left being eaten up by the appointed “guardians.” So AOC, after she got her degree from Boston University, came back to New York to help. She began to chip in some financial support by working as a tipped employee, waiting tables and tending bar in restaurants. She also went to work at the National Hispanic Institute, an advocacy group that focuses on leadership development for young Latinx, where she focused on education issues. Like many families who face economic challenges, they struggled to avoid losing their house as the banks circled, eying the precious asset hungrily. “We just couldn’t afford to keep our home, and we had bankers going up to the curb of our home and taking photos of our house,” said AOC.89 It took the Ocasio-Cortez family four years to emerge from the financial turmoil that had followed her father’s death, and it was only in 2012 that they could kiss the Westchester surrogate court’s oversight goodbye, with a welcome sigh of relief. Nonetheless, in 2016, they didn’t have the financial wherewithal to keep the house any longer and AOC’s mother and grandmother put it on the market to avoid having the banks take it away from them.90 AOC’s mother and grandmother left New York City in search of cheaper living quarters in Florida, leaving her behind in the Bronx. Despite having to give up the house, Ocasio-Cortez knew it could have been worse. At least they were able to avoid foreclosure and make some money on the sale of the house, something that other people on the brink of financial collapse had not managed.

Life was not easy for Ocasio-Cortez back in New York. Her wages were meager, and she had expenses like health-care coverage that cost her $200 per month. She could not afford to get sick because the deductible was so high it would have decimated her finances. And of course, like so many other college students who are not from affluent families, she still had debt from her college loans, around $25,000 worth, which added another $300 to her monthly expenses.91 Between health care, student debt, rent, and food, there was not much left over. Remembering those difficult—and still quite recent—days, she made clear that her personal experiences helped give her insights into policy issues that desperately need addressing. “We have an entire generation that is delaying or forgoing purchasing houses,” she said to Charlotte Alter of Time. “Our entire economy is slowing down due to the student-loan crisis.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.