I believe one insightful portion of the dedication to this book sums up its thesis best:
"..dedicated to all parents who wake up with hearts thudding over the possibility that buying school shoes and Girl Scout uniforms will mean that there won't be enough left over to pay the mortgage... They travel anonymously among us, but we know them. They went to college, had kids, bought a home, played by the rules- and lost."
This is not the first time that Elizabeth Warren has sounded the alarm about stable, hard-working people going under in droves. Indeed, the contents of this book are actually a graphic, terrifying distillation of two previous books written by Prof. Warren (in collaboration with Teresa Sullivan and Jay Lawrence Westbrook) chronicling the rapidly evolving disaster of consumer bankruptcy in America. The first book, As We Forgive Our Debtors, was an outgrowth of the US Consumer Bankruptcy Project, and looked at all of the key players in consumer bankruptcy, focusing in particular on bankrupt debtors and their creditors; it was very academic in nature, which may have explained its tepid reception in the marketplace (however, I suspect the very incendiary comments and conclusions all throughout the book rankled quite a few feathers in the banking industry, and may well be the real reason the text was conspicuously ignored). The second book, The Fragile Middle Class, focused exclusively on bankrupt debtors, and looked closely at the fallout associated with consumer bankruptcy for several reference groups; it was less academic and more activist in tone, and actually preceded The Two Income Trap in sounding the alarm about US consumer bankruptcy.
The Two-Income Trap also sounds the alarm, and zeroes in on the reference group everyone would readily say is most likely NOT to go bankrupt: two-income, solidly middle-class mothers and fathers with kids and a home in the burbs. This book, much like the ones before it, dispells the prevailing myths that the bankrupt are ignorant, low-income deadbeats, unrepentant spendthrifts who take advantage of a far-too-lenient system with giddy glee, and have no control over their impulses. Instead, each book has demonstrated that the bankrupt have to have a fairly high degree of financial savvy to even consider bankruptcy, that the majority of the bankrupt are solidly middle class, that most got in over their head in a situation far beyond their control, and all are profoundly embarassed by their bankruptcy, which all of them see not only as a financial failure, but also a personal one, as well.
Yet, it is also clear to me that the spirit of activism, which was subdued in As We Forgive Our Debtors and quite forceful in The Fragile Middle Class, is not only alive and well in this book, but also very loud, and very clear; indeed, the activist tenor is quite torrential in this narrative. The authors, both women, clearly have written a book to discuss the plight of a particular reference group: middle class women, be they married, single or divorced, with children. This reference group has quickly become the single biggest cohort represented in the bankruptcy rolls. In the book, the authors go so far as to imply that women's liberation has resulted in more than a few of their sisters ending up in the poorhouse.
Having previously read Lionel Tiger's The Decline of Males, and Warren Farrell's insightful books, Why Men Are The Way They Are and The Myth of Male Power, I found the contents of this book (and the authors' aforementioned implication) most interesting. I submit that equality of the sexes has finally been achieved, albeit in a most peculiar and unorthodox way- via financial insecurity, as nowadays it apparently knows no gender difference. Though my intention is to be partially humorous, I realize that more than a few will take offense at such a comment, but my main thrust is this: what we see before us is all part of a larger plan to reinstate the New And Improved Feudalism upon the masses. Call me crazy if you like, but before you pass judgment, I strongly suggest that the intelligent, thinking individual read Robert Manning's Credit Card Nation for more insight into my claim.
For many, the pursuit of the American Dream (which many would say was a cute little myth in any event) has devolved from an honest chance at a guaranteed title shot, to little more than a gamble with one's finances resembling Russian Roullette with an interesting twist: instead of one chamber holding a live round, five chambers have live rounds. Lose a job, miss a payment, and you can kiss your house and your middle class existence goodbye.
Frankly, this game's too rich for my blood, and I think I will pass...
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The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are (Still) Going Broke
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