Rating: 
Summary: Agree with other reviewers
Review: ...While the authors discuss the rise in housing, transportation, and insurance costs since 1970, they fail to mention anything about another drain on the middle class income...TAXES! It's not even federal income taxes that are the main problem in my view. The problem is with local property taxes. I went to a high school that the authors could be talking about...(in New Jersey) and my parents were struggling to keep up with the property taxes. They just keep going up and up and up...I also do not like how the authors dismiss the good alternatives to traditional American education. It is my belief that public school (and its one-size-fits-all product) holds kids back from their true potential. I am looking into homeschooling augmented with private tutoring when my kids are of age. (I am 23 and don't have kids yet.) Also, I believe that if a parent finances a child's college education, that child will be unappreciative of it...I applied for and won a ROTC scholarship in order to pay for school. The military route worked for me, but there are plenty of alternatives for those who don't want that route. Ultamately what is needed is a reevaluation of what it means to be "middle class." Is the typical suburban house in the development community with 2 SUVs in the driveway what we all want?
Rating: 
Summary: Belongs on the "must read" list
Review: Warren and Tyagi offer a compelling analysis of the reasons behind middle-class financial crises. Simplified, they argue:
(1) Famillies want to live near quality school districts so their children can get good educations, go on to college and be successful;
(2) Houses and taxes in those districts cost a lot of money;
(3) To make ends meet, the wife takes a job that doesn't just contribute extras -- it puts food on the table; and therefore
(4) When the "principal breadwinner," usually the husband, loses his job or a crisis develops, the family has no safety net. In earlier times, argue the authors, the wife didn't work and the family ran on a single-income budget. So when the wife took a job, her income was new weath, partly replacing a husband's lost income. The authors also point out that families don't get in trouble by spending lavishly on luxuries. Tucking a baby into the back seat in a wicker basket cost a lot less than a car seat -- but who wants to save on safety? As others have pointed out, the authors leave us readers feeling helpless and frustrated. Public programs that once offered a safety net, such as unemployment, have not been adjusted to today's realities. If you're over forty-five -- and definitely if you're over fifty - you may not get another job if you lose what you have. The authors suggest that even more families could and perhaps should declare bankruptcy. However, I believe families need to re-examine the need for more and more education. I've attended very fine schools myself and I've seen former classmates competing with graduates of considerably less elegant universities. A recent Wall Street Journal article identified tycoons who never finished college. I've seen clients make incredible sacrifices to help their kids, while risking their own comfort and well-being. And I've seen others encourage their children to enter the military for the educational benefits. It's hard to say who's better off. Choosing a good high school is important. However, parents can explore options before mortgaging their lives to the hilt. Some parents have begun to explore home schooling and to find lower-cost private schools, which might be cheaper than paying taxes on a house in the upper-end districts. And I encourage everyone to start some kind of independent business, at least part-time, at least in a small way. I've met dozens of people who support families by selling Mary Kay and Tupperware. Others have lawn services. In the long run, your own business is your best job insurance -- and we need to push for laws that support small business creation. I agree completely with the authors: Don't give up all luxuries! A two-dollar cup of coffee may keep you going while you're cutting back on buying your next car. And I admire the quality of their analysis. But we all need to stop feeling trapped and helpless and begin looking for ways to empower ourselves, even when the odds seem against us.
Rating: 
Summary: Are You One Of These People?
Review: The financial decline of the middle class families began 30 years ago and continues to this day. So why are they only people that are proposing solutions to this decline academics who do quantitative and qualitative (case study) research, and then propose public policy societal solutions? Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi have the experience and are appropriate authorities on this phenomenon. They identify the primary reasons of it: fixed expenses. Those expenses which are constant and "come in every month" has increased substantially in the last 3 decades. Remember in the 1980s when the acronym word "DINK" was in vogue? Double Income No Kids. It may have sounded hip then but DINKS earn less today than one person earned thirty years ago, in 1973.
It is a commonly known fact that middle class two-income earning families have been and still are losing economic ground. And they will continue to lose ground. Warren and Tyagi correctly argue with ample and valid evidence that it's not spending sprees, lavish vacations, or luxury items that are doing it. It's the necessities stupid. Property values supported with gargantuan mortgages are pushing debt ratios beyond the 38% considered the maximum safe and acceptable limit. Housing prices have outpaced wages significantly. Insurance premiums are constant and steady expenses that take a higher percentage of income today than in previous years and they too, are necessities. Education costs have risen dramatically more than wages. What's the American solution? Simply to borrow more money to pay for the higher tuition. Taxes have risen to mammoth proportions and take major chunks out of hard working families hard earned paychecks (taxation is not an issue delved into by the authors.) Again, the killer is the fixed expenses classified as "necessities." Both incomes today are significantly committed to necessities, such as mortgage and car payments, health care costs, insurance premiums, and children's and adult's education costs. The authors provide many practical and proven ways to assist folks in these situations (i.e., the "financial fire drill"). But the solution provided by the authors, who are experts in this field and are renown for their work is: public policy changes. Public policy changes take place when collective and coordinated societal "thinking" changes. Is this likely to happen? If the economic situation has been allowed to get to the point that it has gotten to now, then why would change finally be implemented now? Citizens didn't pay attention. Policy-makers (who are citizens) didn't pay attention. Most are still don't pay attention. Now a couple of academics are examining the origins and and growth of this problem and offering remedies for it. Few will understand and act accordingly. The masses will simply keep struggling and asking "why?" We know what the dilemma is and we know some of the solutions that can help resolve it, but will these proposed solutions ever take place?
Rating:
Summary: Housing and schooling costs have combined to attack
Review: Why are two-income wage earners going broke? Two-Income Trap is knowledgeably written by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi who deftly shows how couples get in money trouble. Today's family earns 75% more than its single-income counterpart, but has less to spend: Two-Income Trap tells why, showing how a blend of housing and schooling costs have combined to attack middle-income families.
Rating:
Summary: Reader Comments Reveal Fundamental Problem
Review: 'The Two-Income Trap' is masterful at explaining how Middle-Class Americans lost ground in the last 25 years. Despite gains in income, the price of quality education, health
care and housing has risen far more quickly. The result is an effective decline in the standard of living for the majority of the population, not to mention extreme insecurity (many families are one job or medical bill away from complete destitution). The authors, however, do not answer the fundamental question why-why does America, alone among industrial countries, put up with dysfunctional health-care, finance and educational systems? This is very strange, given that the US is a world-leader in all three of these areas...
Rating:
Summary: Taxes are a huge reason for the trap
Review: If you just look at the increased costs for Social Security/Medicare you will begin to understand the cash crunch that we are facing. Back in 1960 when my father was starting out, the SS tax was 2%, and my father's employer paid another 2%, for a total of 4%. Now, I am paying 7.65% for SocSec/Medicare and my employer also pays 7.65% for a total of 15.3%. This is 11.3% more, per year, that is coming out of worker's paychecks, also including the employer's portion, which he could be paying me. We have $400 billion plus federal deficits, (Didn't you know the government knows how to better spend your money than you do?) Where is that coming from? Does a government worker/bureaucrat EVER think about cost reductions? Maybe once, and the thought goes away. Then also add in the increases for higher state and local spending over that timespan. The Spending Interests all migrate to Washington, or your state capitol or courthouse, each with his own sob story. Why? Because like an old bank robber once said, "That's where the money is." Now project where future Social Security/Medicare costs will be for retiring Baby Boomers. Where is the end in sight?
Rating:
Summary: Some good points
Review: The authors make some interesting points, and do bring attention to the problems two-income families face, and the fact that many two-income families aren't getting ahead the way they would like to. For practical solutions families can use to improve their financial situation I recommend How to Help Your Husband Make More Money, So You Can Be a Stay-at-Home Mom by Joanne Watson, and budgeting books by Larry Burkett or his radio shows.
Rating: 
Summary: NO SOLUTIONS
Review: After watching the author on the "Today Show" I thought this book would give ideas to Middle-Class parents that could help them get out of financial trouble. Bottom line -- is that the Middle-Class should keep 1 parent at home, put moeny in a savings account and its o.k. to file bankruptcy. Instead of buying this book put your $26 in a savings account!
Rating:
Summary: Watch out.....
Review: This book does discuss in detail the reasons for the financial quagmire that middle-class families are facing and possible political solutions for correcting many of the ills (162 pages). But, it does not spend adequate time discussing recommendations that middle-class families could use to help solve their financial issues. (18 pages). This book should be read by politicians and financial professionals, not middle-class families in crisis.
Rating:
Summary: Needs more emphasis on tax burden
Review: I agree with several of the reviews already submitted which point out three signifcant factors: the tax burden in our country is not discussed at all; people are having too many children they cannot afford; and the financial industry is the ultimate benefactor of deregulation, not the poor, as the liberals had hoped.
The authors do recommend that interest rates be regulated again to control predatory lending. However, the liberal approach to government requiring a program for everything has resulted in huge overspending and taxes that take 33% of a family's income. And, social problems have not improved in the last 40 years (except now everyone has a VCR and airconditioning, even if they are poor.) Personal responsibility and family planning are really the basis of achieving a succussful life in spite of setbacks.
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