The Two-Income Trap - Elizabeth Warren [102]
9 All comparisons of expenditures and income are adjusted for inflation using the Inflation Calculator, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Available at www.bls.gov/cpi/home.htm [1/22/2003].
10 Daniel McGinn, “Maxed Out,” Newsweek, August 27, 2001, p. 37.
11 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Consumer Expenditure Survey: Interview Survey, 1972-1973 (1997), Table 5, Selected Family Characteristics, Annual Expenditures, and Sources of Income Classified by Family Income Before Taxes for Four Person Families; Consumer Expenditures in 2000, BLS Report 958 (April 2002), Table 4, Size of Consumer Unit: Average Annual Expenditures and Characteristics, Consumer Expenditure Survey 2000 (data are for four-person families). See also Mark Lino, “USDA’s Expenditures on Children by Families Project: Uses and Changes Over Time,” Family Economics and Nutrition Review 13, no. 1 (2001): 81-86. According to USDA estimates, the total amount of money an average family will spend on clothing for a child between birth and age eighteen decreased 38 percent between 1960 and 2000 (Lino, p. 84).
12 Graaf, Waan, and Naylor, Affluenza, p. 28.
13 BLS, Consumer Expenditure Survey: Interview Survey, 1972-1973, Table 5; Consumer Expenditures in 2000, Table 4. See also Eva Jacobs and Stephanie Shipps, “How Family Spending Has Changed in the U.S.,” Monthly Labor Review 113 (March 1990): 20-27.
14 Graaf, Waan, and Naylor, Affluenza, p. 28.
15 BLS, Consumer Expenditure Survey: Interview Survey, 1972-1973, Table 5; Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2000 (prepublished data), Table 1400, Size of Consumer Unit: Average Annual Expenditures and Characteristics (data are for four-person families).
16 Walter L. Updegrave, “How Are We Doing? So Far, So Good. But Prosperity in the ’90s Means Meeting Seven Basic Goals,” Money, Fall 1990, p. 20.
17 BLS, Consumer Expenditure Survey: Interview Survey, 1972-1973, Table 5; Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2000, Table 1400.
18 BLS, Consumer Expenditure Survey: Interview Survey, 1972-1973, Table 5; Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2000, Table 1400. Electronics comparison includes expenditures on televisions, radios, musical instruments, and sound equipment. Computer calculation includes computer hardware and software.
19 For example, in 2000 the average family of four spent an extra $290 on telephone services. On the other hand, the average family spent nearly $200 less on floor coverings, $210 less on dry cleaning and laundry supplies, and $240 less on tobacco products and smoking supplies. BLS, Consumer Expenditure Survey: Interview Survey, 1972-1973, Table 5; Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2000, Table 1400.
20 Total revolving debt (which is predominantly credit card debt) increased from $64,500,000 in 1981 to $692,800,000 in 2000. SMR Research Corporation, The New Bankruptcy Epidemic: Forecasts, Causes, and Risk Control (Hackettstown, NJ, 2001), p. 14. Bankruptcy data calculated from data reported by Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Table F2 (total nonbusiness filings), 1980-2002.
21 Carolyn Setlow, “Home: The ‘New’ Destination,” Point of Purchase, July 1, 2002.
22 Today the median sale price for an existing home is more than $150,000—up 32 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars from 1975. Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University, The State of the Nation’s Housing, 2002 (Cambridge, MA, 2002), Table A.1, Housing Market Indicators, 1975-2001.
23 In 2001, 78.8 percent of married couples with children were homeowners. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research. U.S. Housing