The Two-Income Trap - Elizabeth Warren [135]
9 For example, a California debtor was offered $251 in new credit if she would reaffirm a debt for $250.93. If she used that new $251 credit in full, the court notes that she would be paying more than 100 percent interest for the new credit. If she used less, say $25 of the credit, she would be paying an effective interest rate in excess of 1,000 percent. Nonetheless, the debtor agreed to the deal. In re Kamps, 217 B.R. 836, 851 (Bankr. C.D. C.A. 1998). Similar examples of debtors signing such one-sided deals abound throughout the bankruptcy system.
10 Among respondents, 84.3 percent said they had received preapproved credit cards and other debt solicitations within six months of their bankruptcy filings. The median number of solicitations was thirty.
11 The filing rate for not-married women with minor children was 21.3 per 1,000; the filing rate for single women without children was 7.2 per 1,000, or 66 percent lower.
12 E. R. Kingson and R. O’Grady-LeShane, “The Effects of Caregiving on Women’s Social Security Benefits,” Gerontologist 33 (1993): 230-239.
13 Phillip J. Longman and Amy Graham, “The Cost of Children,” U.S. News & World Report, March 30, 1998, p. 58.
14 See, for example, Ben Wattenberg, The Birth Dearth: What Happens When People in Free Countries Don’t Have Enough Babies? (New York: Pharos Books, 1988).
15 Stephanie Mencimer, “The Baby Boycott,” Washington Monthly, June 2001, p. 14.
16 Elinor Burkett, The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless (New York: Free Press, 2000), p. 197.
17 In 2001, Little League had an estimated 1.1 million new members. Private correspondence, Director of Media Relations and Communications, March 5, 2003. Approximately 34 million households own dogs. Of those, 20 percent, or 6.8 million, adopted the dog(s) from the humane society. The average family’s dog is five to six years old, with a life expectancy of more than ten years, suggesting that approximately 680,000 families adopt a dog from the humane society every year, including both families with and without children. According to the American Association of Orthodontics, approximately 1.6 million children and teenagers begin orthodontic treatment each year. Communication with American Association of Orthodontics, March 4, 2003.
18 Based on a linear regression of personal bankruptcies in America, 1980-2002, with an R-squared value of 0.937. The calculation assumes that the average number of children listed on their parents’ bankruptcy filing as dependent stays constant throughout this period.
19 Approximately 1 million children go through their parents’ divorce each year. “U.S. Divorce Statistics,” Divorce Magazine.com (2000). Available at http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsUS.shtml [4/1/03].
20 Katherine S. Newman, Falling from Grace: The Experience of Downward Mobility in the American Middle Class (New York: Free Press, 1988), p. 97.
21 Susan E. Mayer, What Money Can’t Buy: Family Income and Children’s Life Chances (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 76-77. Five- to seven-year-olds whose parents experienced a drop in income of 35 percent or more between two adjacent years were more likely to experience lower test scores and behavior problems in the classroom. Mayer controlled for other factors, such as parents’ marital status, race, and parents’ age at the birth of the child. Les B. Whitbeck, Ronald L. Simons, Rand D. Conger, Frederick O. Lorenz, Shirley Huck, and Glenn H. Elder Jr., “Family Economic Hardship, Parental Support, and Adolescent Self-Esteem,” Social Psychology Quarterly 54 (December 1991): 353-363. The authors found that adolescents from families in financial distress are more likely to experience low self-esteem. Diana S. Clark-Lempers, Jacques D. Lempers, and Anton J. Netusil, “Family Financial Stress, Parental Support, and Young Adolescents’ Academic Achievement and Depressive Symptoms,” Journal of Early Adolescence 10 (February 1990): 21-36. The study reported that adolescents from families in