Costs of Living Hard to Manage for Some Students

By Mackenzie Yardley

Costs are high and some College of Southern Nevada students feel it. There is hope for correction in the economy as raising rates lowered inflation by nearly 5% but it hasn’t trickled down to CSN students yet.

Professor Robert Thompson, a CSN economics professor, is hopeful about the future. “With respect to the health of the national economy, I believe our economy is heading in the right direction. The United States’ central bank — the Federal Reserve — has raised interest rates 11 times since March 2022 by a total of 525 basis points or 5.25%. Their actions, referred to as contractionary monetary policy, are intended to bring down inflation and bring economic growth and unemployment to healthy levels without triggering a national recession. Their actions thus far have led to a significant decrease in inflation, from 8.5% to 3.7% as of September 2023, as measured by the Consumer Price Index.”

Inflation is slowly going down but the costs of living is up by 19% on average from 2019 according to the Federal Reserve Bank. Many college students have big bills, and some find it hard to work more while attending school to make the money needed to pay those bills.

Olivia Lindsay, journalism major, said, “I can’t work as much as I used to because of my class schedule. I think balancing college and work is the hardest part of being a college student. I’m lucky if I get scheduled two shifts a week.”

Montana Britt, CSN culinary major, was able to start school after moving in with her fiancé who works full time. Britt said, “I don’t have a job right now because I can’t find a job that will work with the hours and days I’m in school. The price of living has skyrocketed while pay remains the same for most people. It’s hard to manage. When I was working and living alone, I wasn’t able to do school because I couldn’t afford to not work or to even lower my hours to be able to attend.”