The Two-Income Trap - Elizabeth Warren [100]
Our agent, Susan Rabiner, and our editor, Jo Ann Miller, have provided sound guidance. Their enthusiasm for the project has kept us warm, and their experience has kept us on track. Ann Deville, Cathleen Ellis, Candace Taylor, and Randi Segatore have given first-rate technical support, an addition of great value. Frank Carrere was our talented project photographer.
NOTES
Chapter 1
1 Ruth Ann and James and the other families whose stories appear in this book were interviewed as part of the 2001 Consumer Bankruptcy Project. In order to protect their privacy, all names and identifying information have been altered. See the appendix for more information.
2 My two longtime coauthors are Teresa A. Sullivan, a sociologist and now executive vice chancellor of the University of Texas, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook, a legal scholar who holds the Benno C. Schmidt Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law. For more on our earlier work, see the appendix.
3 The 1981 data are based exclusively on court records, which do not list marital status. We have therefore treated women filing alone as unmarried; joint filers are married. In 2001, since marital status is listed, this simplification is not needed. See more detailed discussion in chapter 5.
4 In 2001, the bankruptcy filing rate for couples with children was 14.7 per 1,000, compared with 7.3 for couples without children. For unmarried women with children, the filing rate was 21.3 per 1,000, compared with 7.2 for childless women and 6.1 for childless men.
5 The bankruptcy rolls increased rapidly during the late 1980s and again in the late 1990s, both of which were expansionary periods. Bankruptcy data from Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
6 This projection is based on a linear regression of personal bankruptcies in the United States between 1980 and 2002. The R-squared value was 0.937. This calculation assumes that the proportion of bankrupt families with children remained constant throughout this period. Based on these assumptions, 5.1 million families with children, or 13.5 percent of all households with children, would file for bankruptcy between 2003 and 2010.
7 In 2002, 2 million people filed for bankruptcy (including both husbands and wives who filed jointly). By comparison, 1.1 million Americans had a first or a recurrent coronary attack. American Heart Association, “Targeting the Facts: Our Quick Guide to Heart Disease, Stroke and Risks” (2002). Available at http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1014993119046targetfact.pdf [2/14/2003]. Approximately 1,284,900 new cancer cases were diagnosed. American Cancer Society, “Cancer Facts and Figures 2002.” Available at http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CancerFacts&Figures2002TM.pdf [2/14/2003]. In 2001, American universities and colleges awarded 1.2 million bachelor’s degrees. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Table 247, Earned Degrees Conferred by Degree-Granting Institutions, by Level of Degree and Sex of Student: 1869-70 to 2010-11 (August 2001). Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/digest2001/tables/dt247.asp [2/14/2003]. In 2001, there were 1.1 million divorces in the United States, compared with 1.5 million bankruptcy filings. Calculated from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths: Provisional Data for 2001,” National Vital Statistics Report, vol. 50, no. 14 (September 11, 2002). Bankruptcy data from Administrative Office of the United States Courts, including unpublished data on joint filings.
8 “Late Payers,” Cardweb.com (October 22, 2002). Available at http://www.cardweb.com/cardtrak/news/2002/october/22a.html [2/14/03].
9 Harvey Altes, the CEO of Time Finance Adjusters Inc., a trade association of accredited repossessors, “estimated that between 1998 and 2002 the number of cars repossessed nationally doubled from 1.2 million to around 2.5 million.” Adam Fifield, “For the Repo Man, These Are Good Times: The Sluggish Economy Makes