(2003-10-20) Salon Warren Two Income Trap

Katharine Mieszkowski interviews Elizabeth Warren, author of The Two Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke ISBN:0465090826 The biggest predictor that a person will end up in Bankruptcy turns out not to be a bad Prada habit or a taste for SubZero refrigerators. It's Having Kids... Today's families are in financial trouble, because they're spending so much more on big fixed expenses - Mortgage Debt, Health Insurance, AutoMobile, Pre-School, After School care and College Education... Over the past generation mortgage costs have increased 70 times faster than a man's wages... Housing (Real Estate) prices strongly mirror the perceived strength of the Public School district... It would be possible today for Congress to agree to put up a commitment: 10 years of money to the first 10 school districts (Educating Kids) that want to try regional School Choice. You give the principals some money to work with beyond what they get from the local tax dollars, and let the schools differentiate themselves from each other. Hmmm, the discussions on interest rates (In 2001, when standard mortgage loans were in the 6.5 percent range, CitiBank's average mortgage rate was 15.6 percent.) seem to ignore that (a) the people paying those high rates probably wouldn't have been given any credit in the past, and (b) it was their choice to take on the debt. (Two IncomeFamily)