And for that matter, if he’s got between $100K and $800K in stocks, can’t he just sell a little stock to help pay for college? Having just graduated from a private school I know how expensive college is, but I don’t think he’s unable to afford it.
It’s gotta be hard juggling big houses, fancy cars, and nice clothes. It may sound like I’m being sarcastic, but I’m not. I know it would be a source of stress for me to have to maintain a well-to-do lifestyle. In some ways, it’s easier being broke and boring.
But I still think Ridge is stupid for telling the press that he essentially can’t afford to send his kids to college on his present salary. Even if this is true, he should have some pride for himself and for his family.
I think Dangerosa has already addressed some of the main points, but it’s quite evident that a lot of people posting in this thread have absolutely no notion of what real world housing, living, entertaining and lifestyle expenses are for people power mixing in Washington, and the cost of sending kids to elite ivys.
Here’s a newsflash for you. $ 175,000 a year in income after taxes will barely accomodate that series of goals.
Now I’m sure there are much less expensive ways to get things done, but Ridge has decided (as he is entitled to do) that he likes being comfortable and secure in his finances, and I will guarantee you that 175K is a relative pittance vs what he could earn privately.
Brainiac4 and I have a six figure income, not nearly the mortgage Mr. Ridge has, and certainly don’t spend our money in “blow” Moreover, my stock portfolio is to fund my own retirement, not my kids college. (Actually, right now its the kids college fund, that will change in a few years). Its facinating that people can make assumptions about where the man’s money goes to, simply because he has more of it than you do. I’m sure he owns a car - probably a nice one. His house is probably well decorated - I doubt Mrs. Ridge shops IKEA (not that you can’t have a well decorated house shopping IKEA, I’m just guessing Mrs. Ridge is more the Ethan Allen type - or maybe the “hire a decorator” type). There have probably been some expensive family vacations over the years. My understanding is that the Ridges are fairly religious - they may tithe some of that money. I doubt Mr. Ridge mows his own grass, and he quite possibly sends his kids to private schools - as is his perogative. I don’t know about Mr. Ridge, but Brainiac4 has quite the comic book habit to maintain with his income. I hope we can afford to pay for a private college for our kids, if that is what they desire. Public colleges are great (I’m currently enrolled in one), but Brainiac4 is a private college alum (scholarship student) and really enjoyed his experience there.
This week I wrote a $1700 check for gutters for our house and a $500 check to trim trees. There goes the cocaine money!
I think Mr. Ridge has been either unselfish in his public service, or shortsighted in meeting his financial goals. I’d never have taken out a three quarter of a million dollar mortgage at the age of 57 on $175,000 a year! On the other hand, he bought the home well aware that he was in a very good position to get paid millions the day he left the cabinet, so maybe he has far more foresight than I do. But if he didn’t intend to leave public service - that was stupid.
I’m not saying there is no reason Tom Ridge couldn’t mow his own grass, , Mrs. Ridge could do all her shopping at Wal-Mart and they could buy a cheaper house. They could drive Saturns. Then they could afford to send their kids to a State school on $175,000 a year easily. I’m just guessing that this isn’t reasonable to expect.
I think it was previously established that he lacks those things.
As far as his expenses go, was there some sort of contractual requirement to buy a $900,000 home? Of course not, he chose to buy a house that big and expensive.
If he is feeling a financial pinch, it’s because of the choices he’s making, not his “low” salary. $175K isn’t going to make anyone super rich, and his housing choice is probably eating up half his income just in mortgage and taxes. But those are his choices using up his money.
I won’t begrudge the guy a higher salary, if he can get it, but don’t insult my intelligence by saying you can’t make ends meet.
How about this: pay me $175K/year and I’ll put his fucking kids through college. 
No, but is he obligated to work for $175,000 a year when he could make $2 million?
Is he obligated to live a less expensive lifestyle and send his kids to a state college?
He can certainly “make ends meet” on $175,000 a year. He cannot live the lifestyle he would like to live and send his kids to college. So now he gets choices. Continue in his career path, tell his kids to make their own way. Continue in his career path, pay for his kids college, but significantly change his standard of living. Or take a job that is likely on the table for him already where he can both put the kids through Harvard if they want, maintain - and probably improve - his standard of living, while probably ensuring a nice retirement nest egg and possibly setting his kids up to inheriet some money. Unless I had an overwhelming sense of duty or a job I was thrilled to wake up to each morning, I’d think choice #3 would be a no brainer.
And the simple fact is that Ridge doesn’t have a job he is thrilled to wake up to in the morning. Its got to be a stressful job. Its highly political. He has probably felt used. He may or may not feel that he is able to do a whole lot of good in the role he has been given. Really, if people want to fly planes into buildings tomorrow, can Ridge go to sleep tonight knowing we WILL stop them? No. Will he get the blame if he doesn’t? Yes. Christine Todd Whitman left the administration and she had an easy cabinet position.
I actually think this is a pretty good illustration of the sacrifices you make for public service. I’d imagine any guy who could be elected Governor of a state could have done better financially in the private sector. As well as any guy appointed to a cabinet position. Do we pay these people crap? No. But that isn’t what Ridge is saying. He is saying “this job doesn’t pay me enough to live the lifestyle I want.” And he is saying, and “I can make more somewhere else.”
That’s a good point; working for the Bush Administration should be automatic qualification for hazard pay.
I think this is the crux of it.
He likely can’t “afford” to send his kids to the kind of colleges he and they want AND continue to live the lifestyle he and his wife (and kids) have been living. So it’s a lifestyle choice, but I say this with no derision/sarcasm. He is free to make these choices, as are we all.
Although I wonder what he was thinking/planning during the previous 18 or so years, I mean it’s not like the kids just showed up on the doorstep last week.
My take is similar to others’ in that I think he’s probably really wanting to get out for a multitude of reasons, including cashing in in the private sector for a lot of reasons other than (or perhaps in addition to) his kids’ college tuitions. (Really, if he didn’t have any job, do you think he’s just tell his kids “too bad” and not use some of that savings, refinance, move into a less expensive house, whatever?) And he’s being somewhat disingenuous about it. “For the children” and all that. Not the first time that’s happened. Not the last.
Yeah, wireless, that’s what I’m wondering as well.
Doesn’t seem like the man had a whole lot of finanacial forethought. Then again, he has probably known from the moment that he became governor of a pretty populous state that his “retirement” package and his kids “college fund” was some sort of lobbyist job or corportate job that would pay a LOT of money over a very short period. Or, he had truly altruistic motives. Or maybe a little of both. It would have been hard after September 11th not to follow the call of duty, even if your plan had in you in a lucrative private sector job.
Its kind of like knowing that Grandma is going to die - and when she does you will get a million dollars. So, do you bother to set money away for the kids college, or do you just hope Grandma won’t be getting a birthday card from the President?
Bottom Line for me: Charlie McCarthy thought he would be just the guy to handle the running of a Department whose very name raises the spectre of post-Weimar Germany.
I’m comfortable with the prospect that he won’t be in the future.
Dangerosa’s got it.
Just because someone’s being paid more than you doesn’t mean they’re being overpaid. In the case of Mr. Ridge, he’s being paid way way under market value, and he’s doing it because he thinks he’s doing a good deed for his fellow Americans.
No. But if he’s got the brains God gave a protozoan, he’d realize how dumb it sounds to plead poverty when his household income’s about four times the national median.
Like wireless says, there you have it.
I mean, we’re all free to make our choices. If he wants the whole package and can have it, then I’m not standing in his way. But I live within commuting distance of the Federal Triangle, I’ve got a very nice house that would probably go for closer to $250K than $900K if it were on the market, and (this was in somebody else’s post) there’s no requirement that he maintain a certain ‘lifestyle’ to be a Cabinet secretary - amazingly enough, it’s possible to be effective in government without hosting parties. (Reasonably decent suits are a job requirement, though.)
If he wants to say, “I’ve been in public service for the past umpty-ump years, and while the pay’s been good, I’d really like a few years of private-sector salaries before I retire,” good for him. But the “I need to make more than $175K a year to put my 2 kids through college” routine is laughable. Even for living in the DC area.
Then let him simply say that he’s enjoyed serving this Administration, and it’s had its good moments, but he’s ready to move on. Fine too.
But BSing that you can’t put your kids through school because you’re making ‘only’ $175K/year is demeaning to the many ordinary Americans who are facing the same challenge on a fraction of the income.
Where is Ridge saying that? He has apparently “spoken with colleagues.” It isn’t like he’s gone to the press. He hasn’t said anything to the press about leaving - its all a leak - and who knows how carefully orchestrated a leak. So who knows what his real reasons are. He hasn’t taken out ads that say he is underpaid and $175k is “just scraping by, how do you expect an average American to live on this.”
Sounds to me like someone is bucking for a raise.
That was actually my first (smartass) thought.
Let’s be honest with ourselves here…there are a GREAT many folks in the Washington DC area (until recently I was one of them) who A) make less than $175K and B) still have their kids go to Harvard. I, for one, got accepted there but chose the state school precisely for budgetary reasons.
No one is begrudging Ridge his desire to cash in, hell, that’s one of the reasons the whole government-private sector revolving door is there at the level Ridge is playing at. Fine. But the while ‘put the kids through college’ thing is thin. For one thing again with the contacts Ridge should have developed his kids, should their academics be at all good, should get free rides on those sort of ‘President’s Award’ scholarships.
And I find my conflicted.
This sure sounds like a soft-touch leak. One done on purpose to soften the news when he announces his retirement later this year.
But at the same time couldn’t they have gone with the more standard ‘Wants to spend more time with his family’ thing? No one EVER questions that reason for retiring.
Which was kind of my point. As long as his kids aren’t complete mouthbreathers, there is no reason why they can’t go to school in PA. I sincerely doubt that either the Penn State system or the State System of Higher Education would charge tuition for the kids of a former governor. Even if his kids were Ivy material, there’s gotta be money somewhere.
Robin
My guess is that he was thinking/planning on going into private sector work in early 2003 when his term as governor of PA expired, which would have left a cushion of time for him to sock away a little money and really position himself to be able to easily handle the additional expense of kids in college. But then 9/11 happened, and the President called.
Jonathan, he’s not retiring, he’s going into the public sector. The “more time with family” canard wouldn’t fly in that case. But remember, we haven’t heard this kids’ school thing from Ridge himself. For all we know, he never said any such thing, or said it entirely jokingly.
Robin, if his kids go to a school in the state system, they will pay tuition just like everyone else. Accepting those kinds of gifts is generally prohibited by law. (Remember that episode of The West Wing when Mrs. Laningham paid full sticker price on her new car?) And there’s no reason to believe that his kids want to go to a PA state school, nor any reason why they should have to if they don’t want to. There are thousands of colleges, some more expensive than others, and given their father’s earning potential, the only thing barring them from any particular school should be their academic records.
I’m failing to understand why it matters. Ridge wants to go into the private sector. he wants to make more money. He has a new spate of expenses coming up, he has a lifestyle he wishes to maintain, that’s his prerogative. I can’t imagine why it could possibly matter.
The only thing that matters is that Gov. Ridge is poormouthing. Personally, I don’t mind him doing that as much as I object to it when a sports star who’s making millions and has already pissed away millions more claims that he needs the money for his family, but it is just a question of degree.
Gov. Ridge is not hurting for money. He has a law degree, served 6 terms in Congress, 6 years as governor of PA and several years as a county prosecuting attorney before that. Government pensions, as well as benefits, are very nice and he’s got 4 streams of government pension coming to him (Congress, PA-gov, DA and Homeland security). He’ll also have whatever pension an infantry staff sergeant who served in Vietnam is entitled to.
If he wants out of government and wants to cash in, well, that’s his right. He’s had an admirable career in public service. I just wish he’d do it without pretending that putting his two kids through college is going to put him into the street.