The Fragile Middle Class; Americans in Debt

by Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook

• ISBN13: 9780300079609
• ISBN10: 0300079605
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2000-03-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Since 1997, the number of American families filing for federal bankruptcy annually has exceeded one million. By most measures, those who file are members of the middle class -- a group that has long provided stability and vitality for the American economic system. This raises the troubling question: why, during the most remarkable period of prosperity in our history, are unprecedented numbers of Americans encountering such serious financial trouble?

The authors of this important book analyze court records and demographic data on thousands of bankruptcy cases, as well as debtors' own poignant accounts of the reasons for their bankruptcies. For many middle-class Americans, the findings show, financial stability is fragile -- almost any setback can be disastrous. The erosion of job stability, divorce and family instability, the visible and invisible costs of medical care, the burden of home ownership, and the staggering weight of consumer debt financed with plastic combine to threaten the financial security of growing numbers of middle-class families. The author

Author Biography

Elizabeth Warren is Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
List of Tables	xi
Preface	xiii
Americans in Financial Crisis	1	(26)
Middle-Class and Broke: The Demography of Bankruptcy	27	(48)
Unemployed or Underemployed	75	(33)
Credit Cards	108	(33)
Sickness and Injury	141	(31)
Divorce	172	(27)
Housing	199	(39)
The Middle Class in Debt	238	(25)
Appendix 1 Data Used in This Study	263	(25)
Appendix 2 Other Published Studies	288	(9)
Notes	297	(70)
Index	367