Discussion on American Middle Class Economic Crisis

Discussion Sentence: Many families are in financial trouble because of their own fault and
deserve what they get!
It is true that many families are going through financial difficulties. These difficulties can
be shown by rising numbers of bankruptcies declared by families (Benokraitis 364). Compared
to a generation ago when there were around three hundred thousand bankruptcies declared each
year, the number of bankruptcies have risen to over one million bankruptcies annually (Warren).
This statistic may seem surprising because unlike in the past when most families had one parent
earning an income, in most modern families both parents are income earners. Despite this fact,
many families are experiencing financial difficulties. As the subject statement reveals, there are
people who believe that the financial difficulties middle class families are going through are of
their own making. It could be that they are spending their money more on relatively unimportant
expenditures such as designer clothes, junk foods, microwave, and eating in expensive places. In
general, the statement holds that current families are in problems because of their financial
irresponsibility.
According to Warren, however, this is not the case. Adjusted to inflation, the current
generation is spending less money on these items than people spent on them a generation ago.
For instance, it is spending 44% less on appliances, 22% less on food, and 21% less on clothing
(Warren). Therefore, it is not true that their financial problems are due to over expenditure on
unimportant items. Neither are they because of their financial irresponsibility.
Warren argues that the real cause of the middle class economic crisis is that the cost of
core items such as health insurance, childcare, car, and mortgage has shot up way beyond what
an average middle class family can afford. The rise has in fact been so steep that even with two
parents earning income, the income cannot meet the costs that a generation ago could be handled
by one income parent. Compared to 1970s, the cost of the four fixed costs – mortgage, car,
health insurance, and childcare – has shot up by around four hundred percent (Warren). Family
incomes, on the other hand, have increased by just seventy five percent, mainly on account of
two parents having an income unlike a generation ago when just one parent often had an income
(Warren). The increase in family incomes has, therefore, been too slow to catch up with
increasing cost of core items that many families cannot really do without.
The effect of the rise of these core costs has, in particular, had a major negative effect on
families with children. For such families they have to spend a lot of money on childcare which
had also shot up (Benokraitis 365). This fact explains why such families are three times more
likely to file for bankruptcy than families without children (Warren). What this information

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reveals is that the cost of raising children has dramatically risen compared to what it was a
generation ago.
In conclusion, the current financial problems that many middle class families are going
through are less about personal behavior and more about having incomes that cannot meet
expenses. For these families to get out of their financial problems incomes need to rise as fast as
expenses of core fixed items such as health insurance, mortgages, and childcare.

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Works Cited

Benokraitis, Nijole. “Marriages & Families: Changes, Choices and Constraints.” (2015).
Warren, Elizabeth. “The Two Income Trap And The Collapse of Middle Class America.” (2010).
https://youtu.be/8GHg3GAeQ1Y