“All wish to possess great knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.”
– Juvenal
In this article, I offer a perspective aimed at advancing the individual student while uplifting the collective student body. I accomplish this by advocating for the simple act of sharing knowledge. The principles used within this article derive from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Continue readingThis summer, I’m interning at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, a nonprofit organization that seeks to assist San Diego County residents and provide free legal representation, advice, and information. As the right to an attorney does not exist in legal cases, many litigants have to navigate complicated processes and forms, which can make it much more difficult for them to achieve their desired result in a case than parties with an attorney. The LASSD seeks to bridge that gap. The goal of the self-help clinics is not to provide representation, but to make the civil legal system more accessible for litigants.
Continue readingSocial Security benefits would not drop to $0, but they would be cut by 23 percent unless Congress acts
This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.
In 2033, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund will run out of money to pay old-age Social Security benefits. At that point, tax revenues will still be enough to pay 77 percent of monthly checks. But there will be a substantial benefits cut unless Congress takes action. If and when Congress sees fit to act, it will have to choose between higher payroll taxes on the top 6 percent or reforms that make lower-income retirees substantially worse off.
Continue readingWith all the changes I have been through this past year, I did not think Boston becoming my favorite city would happen this year. While I grew up in New York through my childhood, NYC did not resonate as much with me as it does for some natives. Philadelphia was fun during my undergraduate years, but my city exploration was minimized due to the pandemic. Washington D.C. was a nice experiment, but the humidity pushed my northern soul well past my limits. I am happy to say Boston lived up to my hopes and exceeded them.
Continue readingWhat the proposed cutbacks to Pell Grants would mean
This post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.
In the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the House of Representatives voted to cut college scholarships for students from lower-income families. Other provisions in the bill would scale back health insurance benefits and food assistance for many of those same households. The fact that these reductions would pay for tax cuts for the wealthy has not been lost on Americans with opinions on the bill, who oppose it 2 to 1.
Continue readingThis post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.
In my last two columns, I blasted the House of Representatives for voting to throw millions of people off of health insurance in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is now pending in the Senate. As it is, half of American households live on less than a living wage, as I discuss in my new book Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-being for All. And that’s with layers of social safety nets, ranging from subsidized health insurance and Food Stamps to student loan protections. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act would unravel these safety nets all at once, even though millions of working families depend on them to make ends meet.
Continue readingThis post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.
Today, financial pressures are a real sore point for ordinary Americans, now that half of U.S. households lack enough income to live on. For earners in the bottom half, homeownership is increasingly unattainable, retirement savings are scant, and college education usually means going into debt. Their wages have been stagnant and their jobs are insecure. Many live lives of quiet financial desperation.
Continue readingThis post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.
Millions of American families live in an economic sweat box, with heavy financial risks but not enough money to pay for basic living needs. Chief among those risks are high medical bills, as my new book, Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All discusses. In fact, health care costs so much that over half of all U.S. adults ran up debt due to medical or dental bills between 2017 and 2022. Many of them couldn’t pay for medical care otherwise. A disturbing number went bankrupt or lost their homes due to late medical bills. Others put off needed medical care to avoid running up debt.
Continue readingACKNOWLEDGING HUMANITY’S FALLIBILITY
Within the legal realm, doubt about the possibility of being wrong is not merely a practical concern but an ontological one. Reasonable doubt, a foundational concept in criminal trials, reflects the level of skepticism a trier of fact must maintain before rendering a guilty verdict. At its core, the principle acknowledges humanity’s fallibility, the recognition that our judgments are, by nature, imperfect. We, as humans, are sometimes right and sometimes wrong, and the balance between the two is often shaped by individual perception. In recognition of this fallibility, the legal system embeds procedural safeguards such as appellate review, immigration bond redetermination, and the writ of habeas corpus, all designed to guard against our innate capacity for error.
Continue readingThis post has been republished from Professor Patricia McCoy’s Substack. Her new book, “Sharing Risk: The Path to Economic Well-Being for All,” is available from The University of California Press.
A few years ago, I was doing research as a law professor at Boston College, and I stumbled across this disturbing fact: more than half of American households do not have enough income every month to pay their basic expenses. We’re not talking about small luxuries like dining out, going to the movies, or streaming services either. Instead, these families do not even have enough money to pay for their bare-bones essentials every month, including food, housing, and clothing. They are constantly juggling bills and robbing Peter to pay Paul. They cannot get ahead.
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BC Law: Impact 