2000 TheFragileMiddleClassAmericansi
- (Sullivan et al., 2000) ⇒ Teresa A Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook. (2000). “The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt." Yale University Press. ISBN:0300091710
Subject Headings: Middle Class Household.
Notes
- It tracks US Personal Bankruptcy Rates to determine the economic health of the US middle-class household.
- It suggests that job skid is one of the large factors of US personal bankruptcies.
- It suggests that credit card debt is an exacerbating factor of US personal bankruptcies.
- It suggests that uninsured medical events are an exacerbating factor of US personal bankruptcies.
Cited By
2009
- (Kalleberg, 2009) ⇒ Arne L Kalleberg. (2009). “Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition.” In: American Sociological Review, 74. doi:10.1177/000312240907400101
Quotes
Abstract
More than a million American families now file for federal bankruptcy annually, & many more are perilously close to financial disaster. In this important analysis of hard-pressed families, recently featured in articles in Newsweek, Forbes, Chronicle of Higher Education, & the New York Times, the authors discover that financial stability for many middle-class Americans is all too fragile. The authors consider the changing cultural & economic factors that threaten financial security & what they imply for the future vitality of the middle class.
Chapter 1. Americans in Financial Crisis
- Credit Cards and Consumer Debt
The debt-income mismatch can also occurs when incomes are able but debts rise to unpayable levels. …
Changes in social values and behavior are both cause and effect of changes in popular culture, but popular culture is also changed deliberately by those who have something to sell, from movies to new cars to credit. Enormous amounts of talent and money fuel these efforts to change the way people perceive products and services and to generate increased demand for them. Insofar as those efforts are directed at stimulating buying by people with stagnant incomes, they must lead to increased debt and eventually to increased bankruptcy rates. Whether these efforts change moral values or simply connect with people whose values have changed for other reasons, the effect is greater financial precariousness.
- Accidents an Illnesses
The mismatch between income and dept also occurs when dets increase unepectedly, enven if income remains the same. An ppuninsured medical emergency]] will do the trick. …
Chapter 2. Middle-Class and Broke: The Demography of Bankruptcy
Chapter 3. Unemployed or Underemployed
…
... Our data suggest that job-related income interruption is by far the most important cause of severe financial distress for middle-class Americans.
Job-related financial stress is implicated in over two-thirds of the bankruptcies we studied. Although layoffs are a major factor, middle-class people can find themselves in serious trouble even if they have a job because the job may change and both income and benefits may erode. If there is a single, dominant crack in middle-class security, it is the fissure related to jobs and the changing structure of employment.
…
Academics call this phenomenon job polarization: the loss of middle-range jobs, leaving only the extremes of high skills and wages and low skills and wages.
…
Chapter 4. Credit Cards
Chapter 5. Sickness and Injury
Chapter 6. Divorce
Chapter 7. Housing
Chapter 8. The Middle Class in Debt
Appendix 1. Data Used in This Study
Appendix 2. Other Published Studies
References
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| Author | volume | Date Value | title | type | journal | titleUrl | doi | note | year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 TheFragileMiddleClassAmericansi | Teresa A Sullivan Elizabeth Warren Jay Lawrence Westbrook | The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt |