Recently during Sociology class, I came across a rather interesting book called "The Two-Income Trap." The words didn't make any sense to me so I was intrigued to explore the book further to understand what the "trap" was for two-income families. Written by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi, "The Two-Income Trap" details several reasons why middle-class parents are becoming twice as likely than the previous generation to file for bankruptcy. Surprisingly, the answer has nothing to do with spending more money on frivolities.
Increase In Income But Less Money? How?
True, middle-class families nowadays are making 75% more income than families of the previous generation. Then, why are more parents going broke? The price of fixed costs has been soaring to almost unaffordable amounts, even for families with two parents in the workforce. The increase in costs for health care, child care, and home mortgages are pushing middle-class parents towards bankruptcy. It seems that two income families earn more money, but in reality they are trapped in a financial burden.
Health care is another big issue among two income families. Despite the Affordable Care Act, medical care is nowhere near affordable compared to the costs of health care in other industrialized nations. Because more and more middle-class parents are seeking houses in good school districts, home mortgages have risen as well. The average mortgage expense is increasing seventy times faster than the average father's income, pressuring stay-at-home moms or dads to join the workforce. A generation ago, an average home could be afforded with just one income but now, one income is not enough to afford a house in more than three-quarters of American cities.
Skyrocketing Costs of Education
In the twenty-first century, raising a child has become too expensive. Parents start investing in their child(ren) as early as preschool all the way to college or graduate school. It has almost become a norm to send children to preschool so that they can be prepared for the K-12 education and develop needed social skills. However, the money needed for this preparation period ranges from $10,000 to $18,000 a year. During the twelve years of compulsory education, parents strive to live in houses in school districts with good reputations, which has increased the property prices in concentrated areas. College tuition has also skyrocketed at nearly three times the rate of inflation to the point in which it's almost impossible to pursue higher education without student loans. Colleges often drive up the tuition because they have the power to do so, and they mostly spend the money on developing sports programs, maintaining administrative overheads, and managing food services. Although these are nice to have, they add another unnecessary zero at the end of the bill.
Possible Solutions to Save Our Parents' Backs
The cost for home mortgages will decrease significantly if every child is given the opportunity for the same public education despite where they live. Therefore, zip-codes should not be the sole predictors of which school a child goes to. If we eliminate the zip code system, it will give more housing options to the middle-class families, without worry about their child receiving a good education. Furthermore, as Tyagi mentions in the book, public universities really need to bring "public" back when it comes to tuition rates. A possible option is for the government to enact a tuition freeze on public colleges. This way colleges can contemplate if it's necessary to increase tuition fees. It may be more challenging to cut back tuition fees for private universities, but they need to make an effort on an individual level.
Finally, the American healthcare system should be affordable enough so that everyone could be cared for equally. One significant way of achieving this is by socializing medicine, as the British National Health Service (NHS) does. Although many Americans fear this public socialized system, it really reduces the money that goes out of your own pocket in the long run, as the money is provided by one payer, the national government, and funded by the taxpayers. For example, in the U.S., a normal doctor visit is around $100, and if you need an MRI scan, it would cost well over $1000, with insurance covering 90% of the entire cost for those who have insurance. However, in the U.K, both services are completely free for all citizens as it's paid by the British government. Therefore, the American government needs to take some serious reform so that they can lessen the burden on middle-class parents in paying astronomical fees for healthcare, in addition to making healthcare available for all people, of all social class.
An average middle-class family of four, both single-income and two-income, has an increased standard of living than an average family a generation ago. However, middle-class families now are spending less money on frivolous clothing and expensive foods, despite the surge of income as they are going broke on the basics-- housing, health insurance, and education. So instead of focusing on deporting all-Muslims, or building a wall, the new government should really focus on how to lessen the financial burden of middle-class parents by passing effective legislation that could decrease house mortgages, provide equal public education for all, make college tuition payable, and socialize medicine.
