This is a video clip of about an hour, about the middle class. It’s riveting in part because most of the time when economic studies are done, they typically focus on the answering policy solutions to some of the more intractable problems in society. Think the decades long war on poverty, and all the social programs it spawned.
Elizabeth Warren chose to focus on the two parent, two child household, and compared (adjusted for inflation) the economic reality of a typical 1970 family versus the same family demographic in 2002. This is a single generation, your parents versus you essentially.
Not surprising to those of us living in Fairfield County, stuff, discretionary stuff, has gotten cheaper, but the essential stuff, like housing has gotten much more expensive. How that tracks against spending choices, risk management and long term stability is important. To put in perspective, Warren explained that more children live in households that experience bankruptcy than households that experience divorce. Pretty startling.
You can skip past the intro stuff at about 5 minutes in.
