[.ca] The Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and ... (ISBN 0465090826)

Misguided Research:
I have only made it through the first two chapters and am finding myself so annoyed I am not sure I will continue reading. Their theories on why people get into debt and declare bankruptcy are supposedly researched but I have never heard such crap in all of the research I have done on debt, bankruptcy, and consumerism. They claim that the debt does not come from buying more clothes, toys, cars, and eating out more often, (because, according to them, when you eat out more you buy fewer groceries??? I know personally that that is untrue.) but from buying a home in a good school district. Give me a break! I am really wondering about these authors. They act like they have come up with startling new evidence of why we are in debt, but I think they are making the whole thing up.

Interesting ideas, limited depth.:
The book provides interesting insight into the causes of bankruptcy and the dynamics underlying it. The serious limitations are the authors fail to address certain dimensions of the issues. The authors rightly identify several myths about bankruptcy and rightly criticize soem of the conventional financial advice that does not address stress testing. More detail evaluation of how a families spending and saving habits may offer some protection are left out of this book. For example, examining what happens to the family that saves 10% of its income would have been valuable. The solution of school choice (or public school choice) has a degree of merit; however the implications for education and budget go far beyond the scope of this book. Their critique of our university system is thoughtful, but almost irrelevant. Families do not go bankrupt saving for college--they merely build additional funds which they could deplete in a crisis. In fact the desire to save for college may limit the degree to which people stretch to buy a home. While the practices of many banks and lenders deserve serious criticism, the authors neglect to consider that the loans may ultimately prevent some bankruptcies by providing needed funds that could tide some families over. Are the people with subprime loans going bankrupt because of or inspite of them? The authors also neglect the role of the current price structure in our medical care and insurance system. Families without insurance are often billed 2-3 times the rates paid by insurance companies and their subscribers due to the "favored" rates charged to insurance companies and the inflated "list" prices developed to fool the medicare system.

Avoids Minorities:
They dont go into the education of minority students enough and how their theories affect a major minority city such as Detroit. We have in Detroit a Dropout rate from highschool of over 80% and those that do pass are usually due to Social Promotions. The author needs to address the needs of Afro-American cities such as Detroit and what we can do to help get more programs from the Federal Government to assist us so that we can build the kind of schools that our kids need.

The Two-Income Trap:
This book is a must read for all Americans. Elizabeth and Amelia have amazing insight as to why so many Americans are in financial trouble if not ruin. While I don't agree with some of their solutions, i.e. government subsidized day care, I do agree there needs to be reform of the bankruptcy laws to make them more supportive of the single mother and families who are truly in trouble. They also bring out the fact that there is a tremendous need for control of political campaign funding from big business and laws that will make it harder for families to mortgage themselves to the "hilt." This book is an encouragement to mothers who stay at home and provide a "safety net" for their families in times of trouble, but doesn't discourage the working mom if they have not based their standard of living on the second income. They are sympathetic to the mom who is working just to make ends meet. The reasons these women are working is not because they wanted all the "stuff" that brings status. The results of the research will astound you! This book is an important read for older teens and also for young families just starting out. Their solution of not allowing families to obtain a mortgage based on two-incomes is simple yet brilliant, but our best strategy is to educate the public so they don't fall into the trap! I applaud them for opening my eyes to the reasons for so many bankruptcies I didn't even know existed.

Almost a great book:
This book has the makings of a great book. The authors show that perhaps there is another reason, rather than just poor judgment, for the rise in bankruptcies and financial trouble more families seem to be in. The authors prove that they are true academics in their ability to use authoritative resources to show the trouble many families in our society have gotten into or are close to being in. This was excellent work on their part to paint this picture. Unfortunately, they don't take the opportunity to really develop some clear solutions to the problems. Most of the anecdotes tend to be related to having the government get more involved with our lives to make families better off. I don't know if the authors are liberal or not, but their solutions had the trappings of a classic liberal. They never spoke of the increased cost burden their solutions would have on the average taxpayer. This cost burden might be enough to send many more families over the edge. An interesting read to make you think about the stratification and problems that continue to develop in society, but lacks the real solutions that would have made this book great.