​Well, it’s that time again! Time to see if you’ve been keeping track of all the documents you needed amidst a whirlwind of a year. It’s tax season. I got a lot of feedback from folks last year that found my original post on this very helpful, so I figured I’d make it a yearly tradition! I’ll update the blog every year with any major changes I notice in my filing process, so if you want, you can follow along and double check every year before filing.

As is always the case, I'd like to clarify that I am not a tax professional. This post is intended to be a starting point in your taxation endeavors, a way to connect you to resources. I hope you find it helpful!

The centerpiece of a self-employed composer or musician’s taxes is still the Schedule C, a form that you will need to fill out to report your income and business expenses. In this post, I’ll walk through what you’ll need to do this successfully, and explore some options for where to do it.
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The most important thing to do is to keep track of all the money you made over the course of the year. Any time you get paid, record the amount somewhere. You should include a description of who paid you for what services and the date you received the money. This will make your life incredibly easy by the time tax season rolls around. I promise without this list you will not remember what happened last month, let alone last year. This should also include any prizes or award amounts (yes, you have to pay taxes on that too!) and royalties paid to you by your PRO (this is specific to composers). Oftentimes you will receive tax forms, especially if you’re playing gigs. You should still record the income from these, but make sure to mark on your list that you have an accompanying form. Put these forms into a safe place to return to when it’s time to file. I keep a physical folder marked with the tax year.

In addition to income, you’ll want to keep track of all the money you spent in the process of carrying out your musical business. These will make up your “business expenses” which you can play against your income to hopefully reduce the amount of taxes you are expected to pay. Just like the income, make sure to add a descriptor of the payment and the date you made it, and make sure you keep all of these receipts. You could simply toss them into the same folder you put your other tax forms. Many people are surprised by what they can classify as an expense. If it was something that helped you in the process of making music, it can often be counted. Anything from gas mileage to a gig, to music you purchased from a composer, to cane for reed making, to even concert tickets (technically research for your craft!) can be counted as a business expense! If you want to do the math, you could even claim a portion of your rental expenses if you use a portion of your apartment for business (definitely run this by a tax preparer to ensure it is calculated correctly). If you do this right, you should be asked to pay next to nothing when you’re just starting out, and will most likely be eligible for a refund (yay!).

If you have any questions about a specific scenario, feel free to comment below or reach out to me directly. I’m happy to help to the best of my ability!
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Ultimately this is up to personal preference, but I’ll give you a run down of how I do it–it’s pretty simple. I use two methods in conjunction. The first is a simple list on the notes app on my phone. I have a different one for each year, which is laid out like this:
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​2024 Business Income:

Paid:
(List of all paid income along with descriptors and dates)

Planned:
(List of all contracted work that hasn’t been paid yet)

Business Expenses:
(List of all money I spent in the process of running my business, again including a descriptor and the date I paid it)

Donations:
(Any donations I made to organizations over the course of the year, yes this is often a write-off too!)

Royalties:
(Any money I made from my PRO (ASCAP)--this is more for me to not forget to pull the 1099-MISC from their website or grab it out of my physical file)

Year Summary:
(This is where I total up my income and my expenses to get an idea of how I did for the year)
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In addition to the list, I also use a spreadsheet to help with budgeting throughout the year. This can be helpful to double check your numbers too. Google has an amazing budget template that I use and highly recommend, complete with a fancy line graph to make your terrifying deficit at least look pretty! You can find it if you go to “My Drive”, “+ New”, and then hover over the arrow next to “Google Sheets” and click “From a template”. You’ll find it in there labeled “Annual budget”. There’s lots of options so feel free to peruse the others!
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Filing can be daunting the first time you do it. That is by design, as big companies like TurboTax make a lot of money through the horror stories of paying taxes. You probably have heard some of these legends of the great test of paying taxes, even good ol’ Benjamin Franklin compared it to death in its inevitability… I promise it isn’t as bad as you think. First mistake to avoid is using TurboTax. It’s stupid expensive for no reason–even worse for a musician like you, they charge extra for those of us who are self-employed. Diabolical.

I’ve recently been exploring low cost options and decided to use FreeTaxUSA. It’s almost honest with its name, you still need to pay $15 to file state taxes, but that’s much better than the hundreds they try to get out of you with TurboTax. If you end up with a tax refund like myself, you can use it to mitigate the cost. I enjoyed using it. It was simple and had a good layout for reporting specific expenses. One take away I would add from the experience is that you should break down your itemized list of expenses and organize what you can into the larger categories they provide on their site. This will let you keep track of what expenses you counted as part of “Travel”, “Office Supplies”, etc. 

Another free option is available with VITA or TCE sites. These are centers in place to assist people with filing their taxes. They often provide in person assistance, and sometimes offer drop off sites where they will file on your behalf. They are intended for people who make less than $64,000 per year, have disabilities, or are limited-english speaking.
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You’ll hear a lot of people recommend that you file quarterly if you run your own business. This is good advice. It’s important to file quarterly if you are self-employed (especially if most of your income comes from gig work, commissions, or teaching). I’ve already made a post that goes in depth on this, you can find it here(insert link to the quarterly taxes blog).
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Before you get to the Schedule C, you’ll be asked to enter other personal information, and input information from any W-2s or 1099s you received from all the work you did/gigs you played. For composers, this is where you’ll put your 1099-MISCs from your PRO (ASCAP/BMI/SESAC). If you’re self-published, you’ll receive two of these, one as a writer/composer, and one as a publisher. You should report these two separately here.

Once you get to the Schedule C, some sites will prompt you to connect some of those 1099s you submitted earlier to your business income, if it does, do this. Royalties for composers and musicians go here. Then proceed to input all the other info you will have hopefully saved in your list and spreadsheet. There will be one section for income and one for expenses. Before you know it, the hard part will be over. After answering a few more questions and filing state taxes, you’ll be done!

Again, feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Good luck, Godspeed, thanks for reading, and happy jamming!

Source: aljazeera.com

With the flurry of executive orders, it’s become apparent that the Trump administration is attempting to flood the constituency into submission with shotgun blasts of policies. While very few of these policies are likely to stick, the ones that do (and have) will be devastating, especially to vulnerable communities. It’s become more important than ever to let our elected representatives know that we support them in resisting this tactic wherever possible. Let them know that they have the numbers to stand up to the incoming administration.

The most impactful form of communication is of course, face-to-face. If you happen to find yourself in a position where you can physically go to town halls and local offices, that would be the way to go. However, I realize that having the time (or bandwidth) to do that is a luxury that few people have. The least impactful form is emailing and signing online petitions. While easy to do, they are almost always ignored. I’ve tried emailing before quite a few times, only to receive a boilerplate response each time - overall it’s a waste of time. So the perfect middle ground of time-efficient and impactful, is calling them. I know many folks have anxiety about calling, especially calling folks they don’t know, I understand that. It can help a lot to know what you can expect on the other end, and to have something basic ready to say. Those two things are exactly what I hope to provide you with in this post. After getting that first call done, I promise, it will seem much less daunting.
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You can find who your representative is through this link: (house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative). Simply click the link and type in your ZIP code, you’ll then be prompted to put in your address if there are multiple representatives associated with your ZIP.

​Once you’ve found their name, you can find their number on the list linked here: (house.gov/representatives).
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You can find your senators and their contact information through this link: (senate.gov/states). Click on your state on the map and their number should be right under their portrait. You can also find other useful info about them here as well. For example, I’ve been including the little “Hometown” fact as an extra way to make things more personal in my call.
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​There is a high likelihood that you won’t end up having anyone answer when you call. In that case, you will be prompted with exactly what they want you to include in your message. This will usually include: Your name, contact information, and your ZIP code. They may also ask for an address, although this is usually left as an optional option. The most important of these is your ZIP code.

After stating the above info, list off just a couple pressing concerns. I’ve included what I’ve been using in the above image but I’ll detail it below:

“My name is [insert name, email, ZIP code]. I’m calling to express my concern over recent policy proposals and executive orders. 1. The recent arrests of migrants are unlawful, all people have a right to due process. The Laken Riley Act is unconstitutional. 2. Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency should be resisted at every turn. The fact that a private citizen with major corporate interest holds this much sway in the government is unacceptable. 3. Any attempts to revoke Medicaid or other financial assistance should be resisted, many of my friends and family are struggling to make ends meet. Revoking or weakening these programs would be catastrophic. Thank you for your time.”

It can really be that short! It’s nice to include something personal in the message: if you voted for them, what your occupation is, how these policies impact you and the people you love, are all great ways of doing that. The goal is to just let these representatives know that these are issues you care about and will vote for. It made you get up and call didn’t it?
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One of the most important aspects of this process is consistency. Calling once helps, but if you can do it regularly, these calls will start to pile up and make a difference. If you can pick an easily achievable regular goal amount of calls, you’ll be more likely to do it. I personally have set a goal to call representatives at a minimum of once per week. I can absolutely do more than that, but if I get busy, I must at least do it once per week. Feel free to join me on that goal! In support of it, I’ll be including regular updates on policies and the written prompt I’ll be using in the calls. Stay tuned for those! If everyone reading were to make a plan to call, no matter how frequently, this could really start to make a difference. Calling is better than not calling, so pick whatever frequency works for you.

I want to work on a way to streamline and communicate the process of contacting local representatives as well. This is truly the most impactful thing you can do. Your local representatives are the ones to implement policy on the ground level, and you can have a more meaningful impact on local policy by talking to them. The main roadblock is that the process of doing this is often different from county to county. As a result, this topic is trickier to communicate in a concise blog, but I promise, I’ll be working on a way!

Things are scary, and it’s easy to tune it all out and feel helpless. This is one small way to take back control. The folks in congress and in the white house work for us, it’s time we reminded them that. In the meantime - between the calls - thank you for reading, and happy jamming! 

As promised, this is the return of Musician Coop for 2025. If you’re new here, thanks for clicking and giving this a shot. If you’re returning, welcome back! I thought I’d start the year off with a little discussion on some of the posts coming up this year. Year two of Musician Coop begins now!

This past year has not been an easy one for many, and it’s looking like the next isn’t going to be any easier. I want this blog to be a hub of discussions to address concerns as they come up. As a result, the ideas I have now for posts for the year may change as new concerns arise. I still want to focus on musical issues, but it’s become clearer and clearer to me (especially with the research behind last year’s blogs) that all the issues we see in the world of music are inherently political, and connected inseparably from the broader flawed system we find ourselves a part of.

There is still hope for a brighter future, and as hard as the next year might be, it could serve as the impetus for broader action and change.

​(Photo by Alexandra Khudyntseva on Unsplash)

This year, there’s some more wonderful music organizations I’d love to share with you. One of these is Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra’s “Healing Bells”, which is an organization which leverages the healing power of the arts to “partner with survivors to transform trauma into healing empowerment through arts engagement.” Learning more about organizations like this over the last has been so inspiring, and I look forward to doing more of it!

My usual “how to” blogs will make a return as I go over taxes for musicians again. These posts are more for me than anything else (I have a remarkable ability to forget how to do things if I don’t write them down), but I welcome anyone else to take a look. With the new administration coming in, we may see some changes on this front - we can cope with those changes together… 

In musical news, there have been changes to Spotify royalties... They’ve unfortunately gotten even worse. I’ll be diving into that topic again, and refining some solutions we were brainstorming in the last post on the subject. There’s also been some recent concerning news surrounding music competitions and their insistence on upholding inequitable practices that keep the exclusivity of the arts alive and well. I want to explore ways that competitions can be forces for positive change rather than enforcement of status-quo. Not to shamelessly plug, but East Zodiac has been doing a bang-up job of it!

​(Photo by Adrian Korte on Unsplash)

​I’m certain the next year will bring additional topics for discussion, and there are so many, but I can only procrastinate composing music for so much time! I’m grateful to have such a supportive community here. Seeing the work you all do gives me so much hope for the future. Here goes 2025! Thank you for reading, all the best to you in the new year, and here’s to more happy jamming!

​Well it’s been a year! This is officially the second November that we’ve reached with this blog… Time flies! Thank you to everyone who has followed along and read the writing. I hope you found something helpful out of the rambles. In this post, I want to reflect on Musician Coop so far, announce a new posting schedule, and discuss what you can expect from the blog going forward.

Ranging from mutual aid, to filing taxes as a musician, to corrupt organizations and the folks that fight for a better future, we’ve covered a broad range of material. My goal with the blog was initially to spark conversations about the connection between music and activism, but it has morphed in many ways into a platform to provide resources to musicians. Pointing out the problems in our system can be important, but I think it’s even more valuable to provide solutions or at least stepping stones towards them. With our future now becoming increasingly perilous, I think that the latter approach is becoming more important. 

In the vein of mutual aid, we need to build a musical community that can be self-sufficient and operate independently of systems that are going to become hostile to our craft. This blog is the scaffolding for the support I can provide to my friends in the arts - a way I can communicate with and share ideas and opportunities with my community. If you’re reading this, I consider you a part of that community!

In reflecting on the blog so far, the most important thing that I’ve come to realize is that I post on here a bit too much. I enjoy doing it, but I find that I enjoy it more when I have the time to sit down and chase deep dives into topics that I see as super important. Long story short: I want to give you less posts, but of higher quality. When the blog returns in January, the new schedule will be one post on the third Friday of every month. This will give me a chance to do more research on a given topic and also allow me to dedicate the time I need for other projects as well. 

I am so proud of all the beautiful work, all the albums, EPs, and compositions people have been crafting despite the elements railing against art at the moment. I take pride in the notion that the more we succeed individually, the more we succeed collectively. (I look forward to writing some musical deep dives on some of these works in the coming year!) I’ve been having a great time listening to everything, and can’t wait to hear more. Until the blog returns on January 17th of 2025, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

​With the results of the recent general election, many minds are focused on the pressing issues that this incoming administration may exacerbate. One of these issues is the state of environmental protections. Luckily, there is an arts organization currently working to stress the importance of this issue, and inspire action to protect our environment.

Refugia Festival was founded by composer Alexis C. Lamb with the goal of highlighting “the sonic beauty of our natural surroundings through music performances, educational programming, and community service to create meaningful environmental change on a local level.” Alexis was kind enough to take the time to answer some of my questions about the organization, so I’ll be including a lot of her thoughts about the work of the organization in this post. All quotes included are from her and the Refugia Festival website.

​The festival invites attendees from the surrounding community to use this event to become more aware of and in touch with the natural world that surrounds them. On the Refugia Festival website, visitors can find a run down of information about attending the festival. Everything is laid out easily, which makes attending hassle free. In reading about last year’s event, I was intrigued simply in learning about what I would bring to the festival:

​Seems like a recipe for a good time!

The events themselves offer a variety of artists ranging from bassoon duos to singer-songwriters, to solar-powered instruments and immersive soundscapes, paired ingeniously with a cast of educators who work to share their knowledge about the natural world. There’s something for everyone here, regardless of age! This combination of musical elements and fields of expertise seem to bring about the potential for a truly enlightening experience.

​“One example was a workshop on native plant species of southeast Michigan, hosted by David Wilkerson-Lindsey. Before this workshop, attendees had an opportunity to perform Elliot Cole’s Flowerpot Music, led by Peter Ferry, connecting the performance to the workshops and service through the medium of a flowerpot/plant container. David then prepared visual examples of common native plants in the area, their benefits to the ecosystem, and what we can do to preserve them. This workshop was then followed up with our service activity with Seeds to Community, where RF-A2 attendees helped transplant hundreds of native plant seedlings into bigger containers so they could continue to grow. Eventually, these plants were planted back into local county parks and community spaces.” Not only do these events give attendees a chance to learn, but also offer ways for them to directly help the environment around their community. With climate issues often being something that I feel powerless against in the face of massive corporations, I imagine an experience like this would feel empowering and inspiring.

The festival ensures that this variety of options is unified in their connection to the environment that they are taking place in. “Refugia Festival is innovative through its place-based programming. All performances, educational programming, and service activities are curated to the particular ecosystem where the event is being held so that it makes a greater connection and impact on that community. This may include working with local and regional artists who have created art about their local environment and artists beyond the local geographic area who have made music, sound installations, and/or interactive performance art related to the ecosystem.”
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​In researching for this post, I ended up contemplating the fact that we are all essentially trained to tune out “unhelpful” sounds. Our daily lives are so noisy, especially in comparison to the lives of folks living even just 50 years ago. The hum of highways and industrial work perforates even the most remote areas. Access to natural spaces has started to dwindle, even though we are still more fortunate than most here in the states. I know I’m not alone in rarely stopping to consider a lone bird singing, or enjoy the beautiful rustling of leaves in a swell of the breeze. Although I remember a time when I would. Our brains now just throw those sounds in with all the others we’re supposed to ignore. We’re all conditioned to tune out “distractions”, except for our phones of course…

In many ways, we’ve become more disconnected from nature than we ever have been. I remember having the luxury to go out and play in the woods as a kid, find frogs and bugs, shut my eyes under the shade of a tree, and run away from the occasional skunk. It saddens me to think that most children today don’t have access to that, and I worry for the kids of the future who may not at all.

“Despite the numerous conversations around the impacts of climate change, sound pollution is rarely addressed, even though awareness of it could play a significant role in environmental conservation.” As sad as it is, I agree. I think that the change in our sonic environment is often the most tangible and perceivable example of how the neglect towards the needs of our natural environment has gotten out of hand. It’s easy to stand in the same place you were when you were a kid and hear the lush bird calls and frogs croaking now replaced with the roar of cars and rumbling of industry. It just takes a moment of clarity to remember to listen. 

​Alexis acknowledges that there are many pieces inspired by the natural world, but points out that these works often neglect the connection of that music to the natural environment it is surrounded by. Performances shut away into concert halls offer examples of performing music “about nature” rather than music “with nature”. “To solve this issue, all Refugia Festival events, including various music performances, educational workshops, community service events, and ongoing activities, are presented in the same ecosystem we hope to preserve. The music may be thematically related to the ecosystem, but we also program works that directly engage with the natural soundscapes. Those pieces are often more effective for bringing attention to a particular sound, plant, animal, etc., in the space. If one’s attention is drawn to the sound first, one starts becoming more aware of one's surroundings.”

Alexis touches on the “ripple effect” that events like these can have on attendees, “For example, if a community member attends Refugia Festival and learns more about the birds in their local ecosystem, they may choose to make simple changes in their lifestyle to cut down on noise pollution to hear and appreciate the birds. Perhaps they even look into volunteering with a local ornithology organization or decide to walk to work once per week instead of driving so they can listen to the soundscapes from the birds. They may then share this knowledge with a friend who agrees to go on a bird-watching walk with them to learn more.” By allowing attendees to form a memorable connection with their environment, Refugia can ensure that the environment becomes part of that person's daily considerations. As we’ve touched on many times in this blog, education and making the unfamiliar familiar is a wonderful approach to enacting change.

Imagine if you suddenly knew exactly who was making all those bird calls in the woods, could identify a leaf as it fluttered past you on its way to the ground, and felt your ear catch on all the details that you normally overlook. It’s a rewarding change in perspective, a moment of clarity to remember, that Refugia Festival offers. It’s much harder to ignore what surrounds you now that you’ve been trained to listen for it. “Overall, Refugia Festival seeks to not only create a memorable event for the community where it is held, but attendees will leave with a greater awareness of and appreciation for the sonic beauty found within their natural surroundings, which in turn will lead to actionable changes within said community to ensure that those sonic experiences may continue to thrive in the region.”

With her wonderful work already proven effective in Michigan, Alexis looks towards the expansion of the project to other areas, “The primary long-term goal is to host Refugia Festival in other locations in addition to Ann Arbor to continue this work in new ecosystems. All of the same curatorial considerations would remain, which means that Refugia Festival would still contain programming that is either thematically related to or directly engaging with the ecosystem where the event is taking place.” 

In addition to bringing the festival to new environments, “Another long-term goal is to collaborate with people who work in environmental public policy to see if we can use Refugia Festival to encourage policy changes that mitigate sound pollution and create other long-term conservation solutions.” Using the powerful effect of this project as a vehicle for improved environmental policy could be a path toward preserving those nature-filled childhood memories for generations to come.
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Alexis encourages supporters to get in touch with her. “If you want to learn more about how to get involved with Refugia Festival or have an idea for a presentation/performance/workshop, please write to me at [email protected]. Even beyond the festival, though, I encourage artists to consider their sonic presence when performing in open-air environments.” 

News about the upcoming 2025 Refugia Festival (hosted again in Ann Arbor, MI) is coming soon, so follow Refugia Festival on social media, join their mailing list, and check out their website at the links I’ll include here:
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Website: (https://www.refugiafestival.com/)

Instagram: (@refugia_festival)

Newsletter: (https://refugiafestival.beehiiv.com/subscribe)

​I encourage you to follow and share Refugia Festival. Their work is so important, and could make a difference in the long years to come. Until next time, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

I know, I know, again?! Yes. In my last post, I gave a breakdown of Project 2025. This week, I want to provide yet even more background to the project, who wrote it, how it is indeed connected to Trump despite many arguments to the contrary, and how the impact will hurt all of us - especially those of us in the arts. There is so much to cover about this issue, really it can’t all be touched on in just two posts, but I’m going to try to wrap it up in this one. Here’s one last little push in favor of voting in this election. I promise this is the last one… for now. I just can’t stress enough how important it is to participate. I promise that if you sit this one out, you’ll come to regret it.

The first thing to better understand is the organization that dreamed up Project 2025: The Heritage Foundation

​The Heritage Foundation is a non-profit and self-described “think tank” which works to:

Initially not overtly sinister, just a bit odd in word choice. However, If you’ve taken a gander at the Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership, you know exactly what these policies actually mean for people on the ground. If you want a breakdown on Project 2025, you can find the one I did here. 

This organization has been behind much of the backward sliding we’ve been seeing in American politics as of late, most notably in regards to their influence over major political figures. They receive major funding from billionaires and then advocate on their behalf to ensure that they can retain as much of their wealth as possible. If you look through the policies listed on their website and in Project 2025, you’ll realize that this is exactly the main motivation of their work. They proclaim loudly about their love and championing of freedom, but ultimately they are talking about the freedom to oppress and exploit.
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Another proud bullet point on their list of accomplishments is, “recommending candidates for vacant seats that ultimately shaped the future of the Supreme Court that delivered the landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade.” (heritage.org) Yeah. That was on them.

Image source: heritageaction.com

Their website even offers a score card feature which breaks down how aligned different politicians are with the Heritage Foundation agenda. They even offer blueprints and tools for people to get in touch with their representatives and push for these deeply damaging policies. It’s the kind of thing that I wish was more accessible to progressives! We need to be organized like this! This is terrifyingly efficient.

Kevin Roberts, the president of The Heritage Foundation, signs off on the website’s about page by stating, “the stakes are high, and the battle lines are drawn. But neither are daunting—or unfamiliar. For they are the same today as they were at Bunker Hill and Gettysburg, at the Bulge and at Brandenburg Gate, at Independence Hall and on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. History is once again calling America—the last, best hope of Earth—to defy the privileged and powerful and defend our Revolution, our Constitution, and our Heritage. Join us in this second American Revolution, and once again, together, we will win.” (heritage.org) ​Whether you were aware or not, the Heritage Foundation has been at war with you and your interests for quite some time now.

​This is a wonderful video that goes over even more shocking information about this organization. You can watch it through the link above.
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Trump has stated repeatedly that he has nothing to do with the project, however his actions during his presidency, and the people that he lifted into positions of power contradict this claim. “At least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, a CNN review found, including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to ‘Mandate for Leadership,’ the project’s extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch.” (cnn.com)

Don’t believe me or CNN? Then believe The Heritage Foundation. In listing off their “most notable achievements” they brag about “The Trump administration’s embrace of 64% of Heritage policy prescriptions through its annual budget, regulatory guidance, or other actions.” (heritage.org) 64% of policies that would ruin the U.S. economy, devastate children’s education, and deny medical care to a vast majority of the American population. Yikes.

Still no? How about Trump himself? At a 2022 dinner organized by The Heritage Foundation, the former president stated, “Heritage does such an incredible job.” He continued, “this is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.” (nbcnews.com) Yeah, it totally sounds like he knows nothing about them, right?

​If Trump wins, Project 2025 is “exactly what [his] movement will do.”

As discussed in the previous blog, just the impact of these policies on education alone would be devastating. Public schools are already underfunded. For people looking for an impact on the arts specifically, a policy to further strip that money away to give to charter schools would increasingly reduce accessibility to the arts, especially for marginalized communities. The fact that not every school has a music program is already a travesty and a failure of our society, to push further in that direction is unacceptable. 

However, as I stated in the previous post, this threat goes beyond the arts. People will die if Project 2025 is implemented, and that is not an exaggeration. We can not allow it to become the policy blueprint for our country.
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Image source: vote.org

The most sure-fire way to prevent this plan from being carried out, is to prevent the election of Donald Trump. Vote on November 5th. If you can’t bring yourself to vote for any of the presented options, I understand, but I urge you to at least not vote for the man that could make this nightmare into a reality. Vote locally, get folks into positions of power who can help to (worst case) combat the installation of this plan even if you won’t vote for the leading presidential ticket as well. I fully sympathize with not wanting to continue playing into the short-comings and inefficacy of the current system. However, if Trump wins, we may lose our chance to turn things around. Project 2025 is designed specifically to deny us that opportunity. As much as it seems impossible, things can still get worse, much worse.

The fact that Trump and his party are likely going to try and prove the illegitimacy of the outcome should he lose, is even more cause to cast your vote. The greater the margin of defeat for Trump, the more difficult it will be for him to obscure the outcome and fudge numbers. The popular vote actually matters for once in this election, we need to make it count.

A majority of state deadlines to register have passed, but not all of them. You can see all deadlines for every state here. If you have any questions about getting registered, or how the voting process works, I have covered it in a previous blog that I’ll link here. That’s all for now. I’ll see you all on the other side of November 5th. Until then, thank you for reading, and happy jamming/voting!

​One of the most discussed elements of the upcoming election has been the conservative “mandate for leadership” included in their Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project. In discussing with my friends and colleagues, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s not really a lot of clarity about what exactly this initiative would mean for the average person in the U.S. This makes sense as a convoluted 922-page document is quite intimidating to dive into. Good thing I’ve for some reason decided this is how I’d like to spend my free time now… I should really get that looked into. Hopefully I can give you a much abbreviated run down of the document so you don’t have to read this whole thing. This post will serve as a summary and commentary on the document itself. I’ll try to touch on everything I can, but feel free to comment and let me know if I missed anything super important. I’ll go over the exact impact of these policies on the arts, and the history and background in the creation of this document in a future post.

I’ll be including direct quotes from the full Project 2025 PDF. It is available through a simple “project 2025” google search. The page numbers cited by each quote I use refers to the page number in this PDF.

​The document is broken down into five sections each covering a different area of focus in the government. I’ll go through each one and discuss its goals. The most notable takeaway from a lot of this is just how much this document contradicts itself. The opening forward goes on about grandiose statements about how beneficial this program will be for the country, then goes on to detail exactly how to strip away rights from us and deny us a say in our government. I guess they expect you to stop reading after the first 50 torturous pages.
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Yeah. These are their titles, not mine. It sounds like an evil villain’s plan right from the onset. Essentially, this section discusses the Presidential Cabinet. It walks through carefully defining each position and its responsibilities. As we continue through the section, it becomes clear that stripping away administrative checks on a president is of utmost importance. “A President today assumes
office to find a sprawling federal bureaucracy that all too often is carrying out its own policy plans and preferences—or, worse yet, the policy plans and preferences of a radical, supposedly ‘woke’ faction of the country.” (p. 75) Apparently all these “experts” in the field that we spent the last 20 pages rambling about are completely useless. Interesting… The goal is to streamline the executive capabilities of a single president, surround them with yes-men, and embolden them to make sweeping actions without the troublesome opinions of experts.

A good portion of this streamlining involves cutting departments. “Abolishing the Gender Policy Council would eliminate central promotion of abortion (‘health services’); comprehensive sexuality education (‘education’); and the new woke gender ideology, which has as a principal tenet ‘gender affirming care’ and ‘sex-change' surgeries on minors. In addition to eliminating the council, developing new structures and positions will have the dual effect of demonstrating that promoting life and strengthening the family is a priority while also facilitating more seamless coordination and consistency across the U.S. government.” - (p. 95) As you can see, the departments chosen for cutting are very specifically ones that establish protections for underrepresented communities, and offer resistance to executive power.
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​This section focuses primarily on the U.S. Military and how badly it has been run recently. Of course, this is by their own skewed standards. Either way, I’m not going to waste much time on this other than saying that increased militarization is good for no one except weapons manufacturers and those invested in them. I’m all for better transparency of the military budget, but that seems like an afterthought in the laundry list presented here.
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This one is a doozy. There are so many things wrong with the statements made in this section, but in the interest of keeping this as digestible as I can, I will focus on the ones that caught my attention most. Something that is so puzzling is how many of these instructions are addressing problems that don’t exist. More than an actual policy handbook, this document comes across as a way of trying to brainwash whoever reads it. Considering this is intended to be handed to Trump, they picked a pretty easy target for brainwashing… unfortunately they wrote it down, and we all know how the orange man feels about reading.

Despite “welfare” being in the title of this section, its writers place crosshairs on Medicaid and Medicare. They make the claim that we have no way of paying for these two programs, that abortion and gender affirming-care are not considered healthcare, and stating that “the next secretary should also reverse the Biden Administration’s focus on ‘LGBTQ+ equity,’ subsidizing single-motherhood, disincentivizing work, and penalizing marriage, replacing such policies with those encouraging marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood, and nuclear families.” (p. 316) Taking away these fundamental rights and basic needs is not only deplorable, but would also deeply damage the wellbeing of a majority of Americans. Regardless of how you feel about abortion, the steps to prevent it violate basic human rights and put barriers in front of life-saving care. Beyond the wellbeing of the arts industry, policy proposals like this threaten people's lives. It is terrifying to see things like this written out.

The section also touches on education. : ) “The Secretary of Education should insist that the department serve parents and American ideals, not advocates whose message is that children can choose their own sex, that America is ‘systemically racist,’ that math itself is racist, and that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ideal of a colorblind society should be rejected in favor of reinstating a color-conscious society.” (page 318) Oh boy. Beyond blatantly misrepresenting Martin Luther King, I’d be curious what their definition of “American ideals” are. If they knew what MLK really stood for, we’d need to call an ambulance.

Another thing to point out is that the writers love to make assertions about problems that don’t exist. They do this as a way of strengthening their own position by presenting a laughable opposing position. For example, the statement “that children can choose their own sex” is not an actual position anyone believes in. This statement demonstrates a severe lack of comprehension of this issue. First of all, these people are just obsessed with talking about children and sex, weird. Second of all, nobody is teaching anyone that. Also nobody believes that “math is racist”, that is, believe it or not, preposterous. What this is misrepresenting is how teachers are working to find ways to reach students that are often neglected and stereotyped against in the classroom setting. That is a great thing! These are all examples of what is known as “the straw man fallacy” - you exaggerate the opposing argument to make your own seem more logical. I used to use this method of argumentation all the time, when I was SIX YEARS OLD. I can’t believe people in positions of prominence in our government wrote this crap.

For those of you with school loans like myself, Project 2025 is not going to be a good time. “The new Administration must end the practice of acting like the federal student loan portfolio is a campaign fund to curry political support and votes. The new Administration must end abuses in the loan forgiveness programs. Borrowers should be expected to repay their loans.” (p. 354) Forcing immediate repayment upon people who can not afford it is not the incredible economic policy decision they think it is. “Growing student loan debt has long been a drag on the U.S. economy. Some 43.6 million borrowers collectively owe an estimated $1.77 trillion and account for 1 in 4 of the country’s more than 129 million privately employed workers.” (adpresearch.com) To suddenly demand payment on these loans could be catastrophic to the economy. Meanwhile, forgiving this debt (see my post on student loans here) would immediately free up 32 million workers to spend more freely and invest in their futures. I know which option I would pick. I know which option would actually benefit the economy. In addition to screwing over borrowers, programs that make higher ed accessible to those with financial need would be cut. “The PLUS loan program, which provides graduate student loans and loans to the parents of undergraduate students, should be eliminated. This would generate an estimated $2.3 billion in savings.” (p. 393) $2.3 billion in savings and higher education reserved for the wealthiest?! Sign me up. Keeping education out of the hands of the working class is a common trend throughout this deplorable document.

​Many policies listed here focus on strengthening the influence and funding of charter schools instead of public schools. This would make education increasingly privatized, offering even greater barriers to those with financial need than are already present, and giving the ultra rich yet another avenue of influence over our lives: children’s education. By funneling public school funding into charter schools, they can point to the inefficacy of underfunded public schooling, and ensure that education is kept under control and dolled out sparingly.

​This approach of reducing accessibility to education is absolutely necessary if a policy plan like theirs is going to succeed. A workforce unaware of union organization, media literacy, and pressing social issues is easy to manage. By keeping education restricted, they can keep the tools for change out of reach from those who need them most. “To restore state and local control of education and reduce the bureaucratic and compliance burden, Congress should allow states to opt out of the dozens of federal K–12 education programs authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and instead allow states to put their share of federal funding toward any lawful education purpose under state law.” (p. 383) Are there Disney writers back there? This script is too cheesy…

“Stop the war on oil and natural gas.” (p. 397) Nice. Increasing our dependence on fossil fuels… We can just play our instruments under water, it’s fine! There’s a few other notable issues in regards to the Justice Department but this section is getting too long and I’m getting a headache. I’ll just include two phrases that will give you a vibe for the section: “Russia hoax” and “suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop”. They really know how to speak Trump’s language, don’t they? Like talking to a baby. Okay, I’m done here.

One last place I do want to stop is their section on labor. There’s a whole heap of anti-labor policies that riddle this section. betterinaunion.org has done an amazing job of organizing this massive list of threats. I urge you to take a look there for a detailed breakdown. A few gems from this are: 1. Giving employers tools they can use to intimidate and prevent workers from forming unions, 2. Making it illegal for employers to voluntarily recognize unions, 3. Weakening overtime and minimum wage laws, and adding taxes on worker benefits. Learn more on the It's Better in a Union site here.
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​​This section misrepresents the word “elites” as if this document wasn’t written by and for them. The previous sections actually touched a bit on their brilliant economic policies, but I’ll briefly touch on a few more gems here as they pop up.

​Project 2025 has a plan for taxation too! Spoiler alert: you’re not going to like it. The proposed tax reform would implement “a simple two-rate individual tax system of 15 percent and 30 percent that eliminates most deductions, credits and exclusions. The 30 percent bracket should begin at or near the Social Security wage base to ensure the combined income and payroll tax structure acts as a nearly flat tax on wage income beyond the standard deduction. The corporate income tax rate should be reduced to 18 percent. The corporate income tax is the most damaging tax in the U.S. tax system, and its primary economic burden falls on workers because capital is more mobile than labor.” (p. 728) This is wild. Cutting taxes on the wealthy and taxing the working class more, and if you’re self-employed like myself, cutting most deductions will make my business exponentially more difficult. I don’t even need to translate anything or fact-check. It just comes out and says it.

​When it comes to worker wages and benefits, the cognitive malfunction worsens. “To reduce this tax bias against wages (as opposed to employee benefits), the next Administration should set a meaningful cap (no higher than $12,000 per year per full-time equivalent employee—and preferably lower) on untaxed benefits that employers can claim as deductions.” (p.729) The thought process here is that workers should receive higher wages instead of just benefits. However, the incorrect assumption being made is that the business would not just reduce benefits and stop there. By setting a cap, there is no incentive for a company to provide more than that cap in benefits to its employees. Considering companies are solely motivated by profit, this is a recipe for disaster.
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In a discussion of small business administration, some of the most blatant hypocrisy in this document comes to light. “Some SBA programs are effective; others are not. The largest program in SBA’s history, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), has been credited with saving millions of jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. A conservative Administration would rightly focus on saving small businesses during such a crisis.” (p. 778) These PPP loans were famously the ones that many of our representatives benefitted from and then had forgiven. So these officials are adamantly against loan forgiveness for workers trying to better themselves through educational pursuits, but perfectly fine with it for wealthy representatives further enriching themselves. If you’d like to learn more about this particular bit of hypocrisy, I did a post on it here.

Project 2025 also stresses the importance of securing favorable presidential nominees to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). To those who are unaware, the FEC is a regulatory agency that monitors campaign contributions to ensure that corporate interest through donations do not outweigh voter interest. However, the power of this agency was stripped in 2010 by the supreme court decision: Citizens United vs. The FEC. That’s why we’re now hurtling towards climate change and advocating for increased fossil fuel production…

​It seems the writers of Project 2025 are fans of this situation, and actually want to make things worse. Not only do they want to ensure that the Republican nominees remain steadfast in their reluctance to investigate campaign contributions, but “to the extent that the President has the ability to negotiate with the Democratic Party leader in the Senate, he should try to temper any choice of the opposition party to ensure that this individual does not have extreme views on aggressive overenforcement that would severely restrict political speech and protected party, campaign, and associational activities.” (p. 895) In other words, the goal is to nominate people who are going to turn a blind eye to corporate interest influencing our politics. WILD.
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​This final section continues the babbling we heard in the opening sections about the beauty of the Reagan presidency and all the wonderful things this project has in store for us.

So! Do you want to pay more in taxes? Do you want people to be denied care and die? Do you want to live under an autocracy? Do you want more unchecked corruption in our politics? Do you want widespread conflict and worsening violence overseas? Vote for Trump.

If not, get registered at vote.org and prevent this man from taking office. If you want a walk through of how to do this, check out my blog on voting here. I’ll do a blog touching on how this monstrosity of a plan came to be soon. Until then, thank you for reading, go vote, and happy jamming!

Image source: headcount.org

The coming election is looking like it’s going to be the same as every one that’s come before it: the most important one in history. Election Day is approaching fast and some state deadlines for registration are as early as this Sunday! As a result, I figured I’d do my part by offering up resources for anyone who would like to double check their registration or get registered to vote. As musicians, it is absolutely integral to our craft that we be involved and active politically. What we do is informed by our surroundings, surroundings that are heavily influenced by the political happenings of the country. Our ability to continue pursuing careers in the arts is directly tied to the results of elections. There are many who don’t see intrinsic value in the arts, and sometimes argue why so much money is being wasted on it… The bare minimum way to preserve your livelihood and the livelihood of your colleagues, is to vote. 

Now I realize you’re busy, and it can seem like a lot at times to add one more thing to the pile, but I promise that this process is quick and painless, and you’ll be thankful that you did it! You deserve to have a say in your future. Besides, I’ll get all the links you need together for you below, so all you’ll have to do is click a few times and input your information. The first step, checking your registration, takes literally 30 seconds!

The place I’ll be sourcing throughout this blog is vote.org. They have a super organized website which lists out everything you’ll need. I’ll link the home page here if you’d rather just go ahead and do this on your own: (vote.org) Otherwise, I’ll walk you through step by step below.
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The first step is to double check if you’re registered. Simply head over to vote.org to do this. I’ll link directly to the form to check registration here. If you’re registered, you’re all set! The only thing you might want to set up is mail in voting or early voting. These options are super handy if you are busy and want to vote on your own time, have something going on on election day, or won’t be in your registered state during the election. I’ll include how to do both of those things in the next two steps.

If you are not registered, you should be prompted with the form to get registered. If not, I’ll link it here. ​The registration process should take about two minutes.
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This option is wonderful for students going to college away from home, and anyone else who simply would rather just vote on their own time. I utilized this option throughout college because it let me vote in my local home elections while I was away.

You need to request an absentee ballot in advance of the election. Every state has a different deadline for requesting one of these ballots. You can find all deadlines for every state at this link here.

Voting by mail means that your state will mail you an “absentee ballot" you can fill out and return on your own time - although I would recommend doing it as close to when you receive it as possible! Apply here.

After you send in your application, you should receive confirmation via email about when you can expect to receive your ballot. Upon receiving the ballot, simply fill it out with your choices and follow the instructions for mailing it back.
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Early Voting allows you to head over to your polling location on a day earlier than the election to cast your ballot. The requirements for early voting also differ by state, and some states don’t offer this option at all. You can see a full list of the requirements and deadlines for each state at this link here.
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In addition to getting registered, vote.org also offers a wonderful tool that lets you get a look at the ballot ahead of the election to have more time to look into and research the options that will be there. It includes clarifications on what party each candidate is a part of, and even links directly to their websites so you can get a sense of their policies. I’ll link to the form to check this here. 

While people very likely already know who they’re voting for in terms of the presidency. It’s less likely that people are aware of their options for local elections. Therefore, I highly recommend this feature! It’s a huge time-saver, and way easier than googling around the day before to get a clearer picture of who you should vote for.
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I believe that’s everything you’ll need! If you’re interested, vote.org also offers cool features like reminders to get registered, pledges for those who aren’t yet eligible to vote, etc. I’ll link here again to the general homepage: (vote.org).

​I hope this blog was helpful, if not for getting registered, then at least to give you some more options and tools in preparation for November 5th! I’ll see you at the polls. Until then, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

A major point that I tend to touch on in many of my posts is the importance of arts accessibility. Concert Music Outreach Collective (CMOC) is an organization that is actively working to promote that accessibility. In today’s post, we’ll be taking a look at this wonderful organization, learning more about its mission, its impact, and its goals moving forward. The founder, Allyson Cohen, was kind enough to answer a few questions about their work, so I’ll be including quotes from her about their work.

It’s a well understood fact that concert music, especially classical concert music, has a terrible habit of leaving many underrepresented groups out of the conversation. This exclusion takes form in many ways, but the most clear are systemic barriers to access. There’s a lack of diversity on stage, from the composers that are selected to be programmed, to the musicians themselves. There’s entire groups of folks that don’t have access to this music - people in prisons and homeless shelters often never have the opportunity to hear classical music because of its extensive barriers. I think never having a chance to hear a violin, a cello, or even a piano is awful.

​It’s at this failure of traditional concert music that CMOC steps up to the plate.
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​“We perform at shelters, and prisons to share and teach our love of music to members of the community in need.” However, their tackling of this accessibility problem doesn’t end there. They also work to program pieces from underrepresented composers in their concerts as well - bringing the classical platform to new places and promoting voices that don’t often get a chance to speak from the stage. “This year we will also be launching a new commissioning project that will be open to BIPOC student composers. We will pick 5 works to premiere at our concerts and then to professionally record for the use of the student.”

​There’s more to accessibility than simply showing up to play a concert. CMOC tailors their concert experience to the audience they are approaching. While the traditional approach sees a silent audience quietly watching the performance with limited interaction with the musicians, CMOC takes a different stance. Concerts evolve from performances to communal discussions which bring down the unassailable divide between audience and musician. “Everyone in the room should feel that their voice and opinion is heard and respected, and we emphasize this democratic and communal feel at our events.” It’s this communal element of music that I feel is often missing from classical concerts, and it gets me so excited to see a group so passionate about changing that.

​The common trope of raising composers and musicians onto an unrelatable pedestal is just another barrier that CMOC is doing away with. Concerts offer an open door to connection by bringing personal stories, information about instruments, and sharing the artist's connection to the music. By encouraging comments and questions from their audiences, CMOC promotes a safe environment where the audience not only feels welcome, but that they are an integral part of the experience.
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“Many of our audience members do not feel respected or heard in this way in their day to day life, and they don’t have the option to experience this art form where the sky high ticket prices and the expected concert etiquette and attire make live performances inaccessible for most people.” This visibility on the concert stage can have a major impact on a person, especially for those who are used to having that denied from them.

“We had one woman from the Delonis Homeless Shelter say that our performances made her want to live again, and we had another say that our concerts are the highlight of the month. We also have a woman who was able to find housing after living at the Delonis Shelter, yet she still comes back every month to hear us play. It is small but meaningful experiences like this that inspire the work that we do.” It's well acknowledged that music can offer us a place to express ourselves and connect to others, but it has a much deeper impact that becomes apparent for those who are not normally able access it.

Allyson puts it best, “Music gives hope and comfort to those in need, and is a powerful mechanism for communication."
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“Our long-term vision is to collaborate with every prison and homeless shelter across Michigan, with plans to expand our reach nationwide. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that every individual in these communities has the opportunity to experience world-class classical performances and engage with a vibrant cultural community, enriching their lives no matter where they are in the U.S.”

The positive impact this organization could have on a larger scale is undeniable. The lack of access to arts in this country is a crisis. To see classical music, a section of the arts that is widely considered elitist and exclusive, brought around to be the tool for the change we need is so wonderful. As a classically trained musician myself, I am certain I’m not alone in saying that it's initiatives like this that help me to become proud of my training again. It inspires me to work toward those same goals in my own practice.
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This future of accessible classical music is only attainable through the work of organizations like CMOC. Like many other organizations, they depend on fundraising to cover the cost of their operations. “First and foremost, financial donations—whether large or small—are crucial. Every contribution helps us expand our reach, bring classical performances to underserved communities, and sustain our programs.” You can send a donation to CMOC through this link here.

If you’re currently not in a position to contribute financially, consider sharing and spreading the word about CMOC and their mission. “By sharing our cause with their networks, artists can help us attract more supporters and resources, furthering our ability to make a difference.” Follow them on Instagram here: (@cmoutreachcollective). Stay tuned for an announcement of their upcoming season dates and projects!

Additionally, CMOC is currently looking for volunteers to participate in the Ann Arbor Marathon on October 13th which they are a partner for. If you’d like to volunteer, work with them as a future artist, or admin volunteer, reach out to them here: [email protected]

I personally can’t wait to see this organization grow and flourish, and I’m certain I’m not alone! I hope you’ll consider following and supporting their work. Until next time, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!​

​My last post covered my experience investigating a scam, and as I was writing it, I came to the conclusion that there is not much difference between a scammer and a bad contract. In many cases, the current state of higher education is an example of a bad contract.

Today I wanted to discuss and provide some resources to mitigate an issue that is facing many of my friends across all disciplines, student loans. With the disheartening continuation of corrupt practices in much of higher education, I think it’s important that we look out for each other and stand together against it. A big part of doing that is communicating ways for people to hold on to their money in the face of unjust debt. We should not be afraid to discuss our situation and share any knowledge/resources we’ve found. In this post, I’ll be taking a look at the deeper causes of this problem, the best repayment plan you can get registered for to save money, and a growing movement that is fighting to get this situation resolved. 

This is, of course, not financial advice. I’m not an expert. I’m simply sharing my own experiences and what I’ve done to try and get a handle on my loans.
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For many people, especially those who opted out of the higher education path, or even for those who were lucky enough to be able to avoid taking out loans for their education, I understand that it can seem unreasonable for people who agreed to take on debt to now want to be excused from paying it back. However, the reality of schooling that many of us ended up experiencing was nowhere near worth the amount we were asked to pay. In fact, many of these institutions actively misrepresented their value, and students took out loans in exchange for experiences that were less than enjoyable, if not outright harmful. Beyond that, this issue is bigger than each individual student’s debt. There’s a deeper problem at play.

It shouldn’t have to be said, but: Those who were forced to take on loans for an education because they couldn’t afford it are not any less intelligent than those who didn’t. They also aren’t any more deserving to be saddled with debt because they decided to pursue an education when others didn’t. They are victims. And to be honest, those who were turned away by the prospect of loans are victims too. Education being this expensive is a crisis. Charging this much for something that should be accessible to all is a scam.

Image source: www.msnbc.com

There’s another group of people who don’t want debt canceled, and this group I have less sympathy for. You might recognize them, they’re the beneficiaries of PPP loan forgiveness that the government dished out during the COVID pandemic. You might have heard some of these names before: “Reps. Vern Buchanan of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, and Markwayne Mullin and Kevin Hern of Oklahoma.” (nbcnews.com) All of these representatives have spoken out against the prospect of forgiving student loans. “Greene, who said on Newsmax that ‘it’s completely unfair’ for student loans to be forgiven, had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven. Kelly, who tweeted that Biden's move was poised to benefit ‘Wall Street advisors’ at the cost of ‘plumbers and carpenters,’ had $987,237 forgiven. Buchanan, who according to the White House had more than $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven, tweeted that Biden’s move was ‘reckless’ and a ‘unilateral student loan giveaway.’” (nbcnews.com)

I wonder, does anyone reading have $2.3 million in student loans? Mind you, these loans were taken out well past the age of 18… They should really know better, right? The idea that our loans can’t be forgiven is laughable. I urge you to look into any representative arguing against loan forgiveness. This is not an uncommon backstory.

But that’s not all! These hypocritical politicians actually have someone in their corner egging them on. You know those lovely loan servicers that you wait on hold for 3 hours with? They actually pay the hypocrites to vote against loan forgiveness. “Student-loan companies spent nearly $4.5 million on lobbying efforts last year [2021], according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign-finance and lobbying data. The industry lobbied against student-loan payment pauses during the pandemic, along with student-debt issues in Biden's COVID-19 stimulus package last year. In 2020, the industry spent about $4 million on lobbying.” (businessinsider.com) ​Even worse, the top recipients of some of this money is incredibly alarming. “Biden was the top recipient of contributions from student-loan companies in 2020, with $38,535, followed by his opponent, former President Donald Trump, who got $25,716.” (businessinsider.com)

Image source: opensecrets.org

In the U.S., this is called “lobbying” but anywhere else, or at any other time in history, this is called, “corruption”. I highly recommend taking a look at OpenSecrets for more details on some of the exact companies who are participating in this corruption.

​So isn’t that heartening! There’s major corporate interest in keeping you buried in debt, struggling to make ends meet. They make money, their whole careers, off of people’s debt–off of your debt. Pat yourself on the back, you’re a major employer! Now do you see why this is a bigger problem?
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Image Source: debtcollective.org

You might now be even more pessimistic about getting out of this debt, but worry not! There are a couple little tiny baby candles of hope!

The most immediate thing that I have personally done is getting onto the SAVE plan for any federal loans you may have. This plan sets a low monthly payment based on your income (which can be as low as $0), and then as long as you make these “payments”, all accrued interest over the period of the month is forgiven. Essentially this could allow you some breathing room without stressing about the total amount of loans snow-balling out of control. You can apply here. 
**Just a little heads up, a recent injunction from a federal court has blocked the functioning of the SAVE plan. However, I would still consider submitting an application in case they resume once this injunction gets resolved.**

Another action you can take is being spearheaded by an organization called The Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors union. “The Debt Collective has its roots in the Occupy Wall Street movement. In 2012, some of the founders of the Debt Collective helped write the Debt Resisters’ Operations Manual and launch the Rolling Jubilee, a mechanism for purchasing portfolios of people’s debt on secondary debt markets — and canceling it. Using crowdfunded donations, the Rolling Jubilee abolished more than $32 million of medical, student, payday loan, and probation debt.” (debtcollective.org) In their effort to help organize and unify folks with student loans, they have created the “Student Debt Release Tool”. This tool allows you to easily draft a letter to the Department of Education to demand that they use their authority to cancel our debt. By joining in this collective demand, you’re given a chance to strengthen your request by amplifying it alongside millions of others.

​You can check out this link to learn more about the tool and the organization.

With all of us standing together, even with corporate interest against us, we can get out of this mess. It’s time for these vultures to start looking for other jobs… Until next time, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!