The Two-Income Trap (41 page)

22
Newman,
Falling from Grace,
p. 105.

23
William Buckley Jr., “On Going Broke,”
The Washington Times
(July 2, 1999), p. A14.

1
Teresa Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook,
As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989). The study examined court records for 1,529 randomly chosen debtors filing in all the judicial districts of three states—Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas—in 1981.

2
Teresa Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook,
The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000). The study examined both court records and a one-page questionnaire for 2,400 randomly chosen families filing for bankruptcy in all the judicial districts of five states—California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas—in 1991.

3
Melissa Jacoby, Teresa Sullivan, and Elizabeth Warren, “Rethinking the Debates over Health Care Financing: Evidence from the Bankruptcy Courts,”
New York University Law Review
76 (2001): 375. The study collected questionnaire data from a random sample of 1,455 families who filed for bankruptcy in eight federal judicial districts: the Northern District of California, the Northern District of Illinois, the Eastern District of Kentucky, the Southern District of Ohio, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Middle District of Tennessee, the Northern District of Texas, and the Eastern District of Wisconsin in 1999.

4
Because one focus of the 2001 study was the relationship between home ownership and bankruptcy, the Northern District of Texas (Dallas) was chosen over the Western District, which included San Antonio. It was the belief of the researchers that the housing market of Dallas was more typical and provided a more accurate representation of an urban center. San Antonio’s housing market was considered
atypical for two reasons: proximity to the Mexico border and the fact that San Antonio is home to three major military installations. Each debtor must file in the district where he or she is a resident (legally defined), but some districts have more than one office to accept filings. So, for example, if the debtor resides in the Northern District of Illinois, he or she can file in Chicago or Rockford, a suburb, although very few are filed in Rockford. The researchers sampled only in the big cities, which is where the overwhelming majority of bankruptcies are filed in four of the five districts. In the Central District of California, the researchers sampled only Los Angeles, but in that district a larger proportion of cases are also filed in outlying areas. As we note in the text, this may result in a bias toward larger cities and an underrepresentation of rural and small-town areas.

5
For a discussion of this phenomenon, see Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook, “The Persistence of Local Legal Culture: Twenty Years of Evidence from the Bankruptcy Courts,”
Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy
17 (1994), reprinted in Charles J. Tabb,
Bankruptcy Anthology
(Westbury, NY: Foundation Press, 2002).

6
Mean bankruptcy filing rate per 1,000 adults, 1990-2000. SMR Research Corporation,
The New Bankruptcy Epidemic: Forecasts, Causes, and Risk Control
(Hackettstown, NJ, June 2001), pp. 181-187.

7
The 1970 occupational codes have been used in all of the preceding Consumer Bankruptcy Projects. They are also still widely in use as the last “pure” occupational codes used by the Census Bureau. They have been used in major studies such as the General Social Survey. Since the 1970 census, the Bureau has adopted sets of codes that incorporate industry as well as occupation, but several “walkovers” are available that permit correspondence from one set of codes to another.

Added Worker Effect

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
(de Graaf)

African Americans

Alimony

American Association of University Professors

American Bankers Association

American Council on Education

Assets, Protection of

Automobiles

repossessions of

Banking industry

profits

See also
Citibank; Deregulation of lending industry; MBNA; Credit cards

Bankruptcy (fig.)

of African Americans

bankruptcy bill in Congress

best predictor for

in business

Chapter 7 and Chapter 13

and children

and collection threats

and debt

debts not forgiven in

and disability coverage

and divorce

fraud concerning

and health.
See also
Health issues, health insurance

of Hispanics

and immoral debtors

and jobless

and medical bills(fig.).
See also
Health issues

National Bankruptcy Review Commission

number of families filing (fig.)

men with child support/alimony obligations filing

and parenthood

period before filing

process described

reasons for filing(fig.)

refiling

restricting right to file

single mothers filing (fig.)

stigma of

and two-income families.
See also
Families, with two incomes

women filing.
See also
Women, bankruptcy

See also Consumer Bankruptcy project;
As We Forgive Our Debtors; Fragile Middle Class,
Debt

Bidding wars

college

housing

preschool

and public schools

and working mothers

Biden, Joseph

Birth rates

Boston, pubic schools and housing

Boucher, Rick

Breneman, David

Buckley, William F., Jr.

Bureau of Labor Statistics.
See also
Consumer Expenditure Survey

Bush, George W.

California bankruptcy data collection

Campaign finance reform

Chase Manhattan

Chicago bankruptcy data collection

Child care.
See
Day care

Children.
See also
Child support; Day care; Education;
under
Families

Child support

and bankruptcy

deadbeat dads

enforcement

increasing amounts awarded

and joint custody

and Share-the-Pain model

Chronicle of Higher Education

Church Women United

Citibank

Clinton, Bill

Clinton, Hillary

Clothing expenses

Columbia University

Community Reinvestment Act

Computer expenses

Congress.
See also
Bankruptcy, bankruptcy bill in Congress; Bankruptcy, National Bankruptcy Review Commission; Campaign Finance Reform

Consumer Bankruptcy Project (2001) (fig.)(fig.)

summary of core and supplementary samples(table)

Consumer Expenditure Survey (fig.)(fig.)

Consumption

over-consumption

See also
Automobiles; Clothing; Computer expenses; Cutting back on spending; Food; Vacations

Costs

of automobiles

of bringing up children

of college education

of credit card companies

of creditors to repossess

of divorce

fixed(fig.)

of housing,
see
Homes, prices

of preschool

Credit cards

aggressive collection tactics

and families in financial trouble

fees

and layoffs, child support, and health insurance lapses

marketing

percentage increase in debt

pre-approved offers

profits for companies

replacing credit card debt with mortgage debt

See also
Chase Manhattan; Citibank; MBNA

Credit counseling

Credit, democratization of

Credit protection insurance

Credit reports/ratings

Crime

Crittenden, Danielle

Cutting back on spending.
See also
Consumption

Dallas bankruptcy data collection

Day care

Deadbeat dads

Debt(fig.)

and death of debtor

debt explosion

discharged by courts during bankruptcy

not forgiven in bankruptcies

personal responsibility for

splitting after divorce

See also
Bankruptcy: Credit cards; Mortgages; Student loans

de Graaf, John

Delaware

Deregulation of lending industry.
See also
Banking industry; Interest rates, regulated/deregulated; Regulations, reregulating lending practices; Usury laws

Disability insurance

Discrimination

Divorce

costs of

discretionary income before and after(fig.)

divorced fathers.
See also
Child support; Deadbeat dads

divorced women.
See also
Mothers, single mothers

divorce explosion of the 1970s

and joint custody of children

and two-income families

See also
Child support

Domestic violence

Duke University

Education

age of children starting school

college education

preschool

private schools

public schools

school choice

voucher programs

of women

Elderly people

and long-term care insurance

Elections/campaigns.
See also
Political contributions

Equal Credit Opportunity Act

Equal opportunity

Failing schools.
See also
Education, public schools

Falling from Grace
(Newman)

Families

with children (fig.).
See also
Education

without children

cohabiting

family values

of a generation ago

managing money in

marital problems in.
See
Marriage, marital problems

with one income (fig.)(fig.) (fig.).
See also
Families, with stay-at-home mothers

politics of the family

risk concerning (fig.)

single parent.
See also
Mothers, single mothers

with stay-at-home mothers

with two incomes (fig.)(fig.) (fig.)

Family and Medical Leave Act

Family Research Council

Fannie Mae

Fathers.
See also
Child support; Deadbeat dads

Federal Housing Administration

Federal Reserve

Federal spending

Feminism

agenda for women/single mothers

See also
Women’s movement

Financial planning

emergency backup plans

Florida bankruptcy laws

Focus on the Family

Food

costs

restaurant meals

spending on

Foreclosure rates.
See also
Homes, foreclosures

Frank, Robert

Fraud.
See under
Bankruptcies

Fresno, California, public schools

Friedan, Betty

Gephardt, Richard

Gore, Al

Grapes of Wrath
(Steinbeck)

Great Depression

Hadassah

Harvard University

Hatch, Orrin

Health issues

and filing for bankruptcy

health insurance

See also
Disability coverage

Herring Hardware

Himmelstein, David

Hispanics

Homes

of African Americans and Hispanics

age of

appliances/furnishings for

bidding wars for

of divorced fathers

down payments

foreclosures.
See also
Foreclosure rates

of Hispanics

home equity and bankruptcy

home equity loans

home ownership

being “house poor,”

housing and joint custody of children

housing market and public education voucher system

prices

regulation of housing market

renting

and school quality

single mothers owning

size of

spending on as proportion of family income

vacation homes

See also
Mortgages

Hospitals

Housing and Urban Development, department of

Hyde, Henry

Illinois bankruptcy data collection

Income, discretionary(fig.)

before and after divorce (fig.)

See also
Families, with one income; Families, with two incomes

Income gap between single/married parents

Inflation

Insurance.
See also
Credit protection insurance; Disability coverage; Health issues, health insurance; Long-term care insurance

Interest rates

exported from state to state

and inflation rate or prime rate

and late payments

lowered by Federal Reserve