$165,200 salary not enough to afford college

Raw Story has some exerpts from a story in Roll Call:

Maybe Rep. Mary Bono (D[sic]-Calif.) [Note: She's actually a Republican] voted for that pay raise last year because her annual salary of $165,200 just won’t be enough to pay for her 18-year-old son Chesare, better known as Chez, to attend college this fall.

In a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection Wednesday afternoon, Bono said, “I could not afford college for my son if Sonny’s royalties were not paying for it.” That would be the royalties from her late husband, the singer and former Congressman.

College isn’t her only expense. Bono mentioned that she recently bought new cars for herself and Chez, both of which needed satellite radio and Bluetooth capabilities.

...

According to Bono spokeswoman Kimberly Collins, Chez plans to attend the University of Southern California this fall, though his admission is conditional on completion of a summer school course. USC would cost $46,966 a year in tuition, housing and other costs, according to the school’s Web site.

I'm shedding crocodile tears for her.

Government statistics (PDF, see table A3) show that more than 95 percent of households in the United States (in 2002) had total money incomes that were less than her $165,200. [$150,002 put you in the top 5% in that year]. If she can't afford college for a single child, think how much worse off most of the rest of the population, most of whom have more than one child, are.

Unfortunately, we are becomming a country where only the extraordinarily rich can afford to educate their children. Consider where that will lead us in the next fifty years.