Rating: 
Summary: Give it up, people.
Review: After reading this book, I was left with just one overriding question:Why doesn't anybody ever say, "We can't afford that"? It's quite simple: given a specific income, you can afford certain things. If you go into debt to buy stuff that you really can't afford, that's your fault. It's not because of a run-down education system; it's not because the lenders didn't take due care with you; it's not because you were suckered into buying an SUV by advertisers. It is, quite simply and directly, YOUR FAULT. Books like this foster a victim mentality. Anybody with a sound grasp of their personal finances knows that you can live a very good life - far better than our grandparents' or parents' - without going into excessive debt. This half-baked book is wrong; our standard of living has risen to unprecedented levels in the past few decades. Sadly, it appears that peoples' material ambitions and lack of common sense have grown even faster. If you want an antidote to this lame essay on victimology, try reading the Millionaire Next Door, or The Millionaire Mind. They are well-researched books about the opposite of Warren and Tyagi's scare-mongering. Their message is simple: live within your means, save your money, learn how to invest, and stop believing that it's someone else's fault. You owe it to yourself and your children to do the right thing.
Rating: 
Summary: Yes Virginia, many Americans are over-consuming
Review: I have just started reading the book "Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic" by John De Graaf, which has an interesting statistic. Fifteen years ago there were more high schools than shopping centers in the US. Today there are two shopping centers for every high school. Also, 70% of Americans go to the mall once a week. I recommend that you read Affluenza in addition to The Two-Income Trap, so you can compare and contrast. Affluenza somewhat contradicts the premise of The Two-Income Trap. If Americans really are spending less than their parents' generation why has the number of shopping centers skyrocketed? Why is there so much debt and bankruptcy? It's because creditors are extending a lot of credit to the uncredit-worthy. This includes people with bad credit and college students who earn little or no money. Many young people graduate from college with enormous amounts of credit card debt at excessive interest rates, on top of student loans. With the interest rapidly building it can take years to pay off the debt. Those are also years spent saving and investing little or no money. As a result many people have a lot of debt and no money saved when they marry, have children and buy a home. Smaller down payments mean higher mortgages. Of course, nowadays a car is no longer good enough for young urban and suburbanites so they buy costly SUVs and add higher auto payments and enormous gas bills to their problems. With little or no savings and high debt loads many people don't have the savings and the insurance to get through job losses or illnesses. The authors' claim that "over-consumption" is not the problem simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Imagine a scenario. A college student lives as cheaply as possible. He graduates only with student loan debt. He gets a job, brings a bagged lunch to work, makes dinner at home and only buys clothes he needs. He puts $1000 a month into savings and pays more than the monthly minimum to quickly pay down his student loans. He gets married and he and his wife now put $2000 a month into savings. By 30 they have well over $150,000 saved, so they make a big down payment on a house. They now have an affordable mortgage. A child is born and thanks to their frugal habits and lack of debt either mom or dad can afford to stay home and raise it. They buy an insurance policy that will pay their mortgage if they can't make payments due to illness or job loss. They also buy life and disability policies, which they can afford because they are not overwhelmed with debt. How do I know this is possible? I'm 35 and I did it. This book is pretty good and is worth reading, because it discusses many important issues and makes many good points. For example, I agree with the idea of rate caps on credit cards and I agree that universities don't do much to keep costs down. However, its unfortunate that the authors have downplayed the obvious over-consumption that is widespread in America today. Frugality and saving from a young age are the simplest solutions to the two income trap.
Rating:
Summary: do you deserve to be middle class?
Review: I recommend this book, if for nothing else to understand why real-estate prices & levels of debt are skyrocketing. The authors put a lot of effort into the research and presented many interesting stats. The authors worldview is a liberal one, and they maintain that the masses all deserve to remain middle class, even when they loose jobs, divorce, suffer serious illness, etc. The masses are not profligate and wasteful, they are "unlucky" ... There was one compelling story of a father who suffered a heart attack at age 40, and was out of work for some time, threatening to push the family into a lower socio-economic status. Bad luck? Maybe. Without more information, its hard to feel sympathetic. For example, the guy could be a beer-guzzling chain smoker, who dines at McDonalds every night, and eats Coca Puffs for breakfast. Its rather humerous that people are plowing huge amounts of money into suburban housing, bidding up the price of real-estate so that their kids can attend "exclusive" public schools. Seems a contradiction in terms. How many of these kids return home from these "elite" institutions, fire up the TV (or video games), and lounge around consuming junk food all evening, getting fat.
Rating:
Summary: lifestyle choices matter...
Review: This book is a great reminder that the lifestyle choices that a person makes can have huge life altering ramifications down the road. Children are *expensive*, folks. At the oft-quoted figure of $250K to raise 1 child to age 18 - that is a huge financial impact upon a family. If I went out and bought 2 Ferrari's at $250K each, people would think that I was nuts, but conversely, if I went and had 2 children within a couple of years-well, I'd get a party at work for that. The book points out that 70% of people who are childfree don't ever have to deal with bankruptcy. The book does address remaining childfree as a path towards avoiding financial disaster, but then the authors turn around and say that they hope that people who want children will have them, regardless of the risk of financial woes. This is something that is under your control, and may be one of the more important decisions that you ever will make.
Rating: 
Summary: The book's basic outline, plus my impressions...
Review: 1) Don't have any children-they increase your chances of going bankrupt. 2) Live within your means/on the salary of one person (if you are married). 3) Public schools in "cheaper housing areas" stink-give parents vouchers so their kids can attend any school in a district. 4) Single parents are "screwed"/divorce keeps everyone from "getting ahead." 5) Reinstate usury laws of the 1960's/70's. I'm probably missing a few things, but these are the basic points of the book. I'm sad that she offers few solutions and seems to dwell on the single mom/"deadbeat dad" instead of the idea of single parent/"deadbeat parent," as not all single parents are women these days (nor are they divorcee's-many have never been married). My advice would be to read this publication at your library instead of buying it, as it reads like a "research paper"/"master's thesis (including endnotes)" done by the authors as opposed to being simply a "book." I was a bit dissapointed in this, as I had heard the author speak several times on NPR andsadly is.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: This book describes two-income families competing ferociously with each other for homes in desirable school districts, driving home prices and property taxes to higher and higher levels, forcing many Americans to abandon their dreams of home ownership. All of this is done supposedly to benefit the children who, ironically, will be the first generation of Americans in history who will not be better off than their parents. Today's ordinary middle class kids live in McMansions, watch plasma TVs, play video games and ride in SUVs with built-in DVD players. Thanks to cheap foreign labor assembling products that our American neighbors used to make, we can all afford this stuff. But Americans have been duped. This generation's rising college tuitions are bankrupting their parents. Once kids graduate they discover that the jobs they were promised have already been outsourced to brilliant young Indians who speak fluent English and received their educations courtesy of their own government. Unbelievably, this is the first generation of American college graduates that won't be fielding job offers. We American taxpayers unwittingly funded the Internet technology that revolutionized the way businesses operate, enabling people oceans away to perform white collar jobs formerly held by Americans. While all of this has been going on, many of those still fortunate enough to be employed are vainly plodding away working extra long hours so they can buy their kids fancier gadgets than their classmates have. Our value system needs an overhaul. A high performing society must have a healthy mix of stay-at-home and working people to keep the balance. Neighborhoods are safer and more pleasant to live in when retired and stay-at-home people are present. Fewer people competing for jobs means better jobs and higher salaries for those who do work. Maybe somebody's unemployed college graduate kid will find a good job because somebody else's mom or dad decided to stay home for a while. This is not sexism or a moral issue. This is common sense. The Two-Income Trap is a trap for all of society but it will especially hurt the children it was supposed to benefit.
Rating:
Summary: A practical overview
Review: Finally, a practical overview of the problems our middle-class families face and the consequences of two-income households. In particular, the authors focus on the education system. The problems we have with our education are much more simple than people think. In fact, Americans are rather apathetic over the issue because they think it's too complicated to fix. Shame on us! As a former teacher, I am familiar with how outdated the system is. We have a defunct 9-month system, inconvenient school hours, low community and student expecations, and meddling teacher unions. Most importantly, our schools are overly dependent on property taxes. That's why there's a brand new high school only miles away from one that springs a roof leak every winter. A high income area equals good schools; low income equals poor schools -- the key reason minorities fair so poorly nationwide. For those who can set aside their policial biases, you'll understand that the purpose of the book is for families (and particularly women) to be more vocal and demand changes. It requires that you educate yourself about the details of education in America. I'm surprised how many people misunderstand the voucher system. It's actually not a far-fetched concept -- no more so than sending our children to the dilapitated schools simply because we live in an apartment in Zone A. If our schools received funding in any way other than property taxes, we'd be on the road to a major, positive overhaul of this system. After reading this book, I plan on speaking out on the issue. I wrote to my senators. Bravo to the authors for providing such a thorough overview and for demanding change. A sidenote: I have to say I think very differently about Hilary Clinton after hearing a first-hand account of how her political aspirations came before her defense of women. We need to be heard by politicians; they are currently ignoring the issue because we let them. Once we stop assuming it's "too big of a problem", we'll be over the first hurdle and on our way to reformation.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money on this book!
Review: Don't waste your money on this book - instead donate the price of the book to your local public school.
What a disappointment!
I would have hoped for more from the authors, given their qualifications, but instead the solution this book proposes is SCHOOL VOUCHERS!
Rating:
Summary: What ever happened to common sense?
Review: This book tries to say that people who indulge in materialism and luxurious living are victims.? Did they teach this at Harvard? Common sense tells us that if you spend more than you make you will probably go broke. It doesn't take a Harvard professor to figure out that...hey, maybe we don't need 2 brand new SUV's and that 6000 square foot stone house with the hardwood floors and 90" plamsa tv screen.
Rating:
Summary: The workforce doubled - that is what happened
Review: The book presents some interesting data. My personal opinion is the book totally overlooks the obvious. When women entered the workforce, the supply of workers doubled. That drove down wages, granted, not by half, but the ability of one income to provide for all the needs and nice-ities certainly was eroded because that income was less. Who benefited from that? Corporations and businesses. The dirty little secret is the workforce supply increase caused downward pressure on wages. When people ask why can't a family live as comfortably on one income as they did 30 years ago, that is the answer. When people ask where the money went, the answer is it went to the corporations and businesses that were the beneficiaries of the women's movement. As a side observation... 30 years ago, were CEO's multi-multi millionairres, or just a rich family in town, like a doctor or lawyer? Food for thought.
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