Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are Going Broke

I was recommended this book by some friends and after the first chapter I was terrified. And captivated. But by the middle of book, I was tired and honestly stopped reading.

Let's just say, I got the point early on: people who have children and have two incomes are in trouble for no fault of their own. Well, sort-of not their own. But a fascinating study nonetheless. Here's a break down of their analysis.

At some point in time in the past 30 years (due mostly to the feminist movement), women started flooding the workplace. Although this is a great thing to expect equality in the workplace, what happened is that families with two incomes from both parents were able to outbid their counterparts on a housing market to get into the best schools and the safest locations. This resulted in a housing market (for good schools and safe neighborhoods) which has overincreased above inflation and the possibility of not having two incomes. So, now it is a "requirement" to have two incomes to supplement a good lifestyle and appropriate headstart for children. And what happens when one of the two parents loose their jobs? Bankruptcy.

Now I come to my two problems with this book. First, a lot of finger pointing without any well thought through solutions. I give it to them that they are economists and not governemental systems analysts because they can see the problem but the solution truly evades them - especially when it deals with "everyone just needs to..." solutions. Second problem is that this isn't an economic journal, but a light read meant for the public. I've always disliked so-called self-help books and popular systems analysis books for this reason. Stephen Hawking, in his landmark book A Brief History of Time, stated that "someone told [him] that each equation [he] included in the book would halve the sales." Albeit an honest assessment of popular reading attention span, it shows for a poorly documented book when figures and facts are not present when scientific claims are being reviewed. Hawking could get away with not presenting facts because he was presenting a review of time and space; I should be reading about economic studies in an economic journal, which has been peer reviewed and all speculation removed.

This book did however strengthen my resolve to homeschool our children and live where ever we darn well please.