The Two-Income Trap - Elizabeth Warren [27]
But do the cars have to be so big? SUVs may drink gasoline with abandon, but families are also buying room for safety devices that didn’t even exist in the early 1970s. Every time I (Elizabeth) strap my granddaughter into the car, I am reminded of what I did when Amelia was a baby. I tucked her in a wicker bassinet, which perched on the back seat of our Volkswagen Beetle. I was somewhat unusual—not because I failed to use so much as a seat belt to hold my seven-pound daughter in place—but because I opted not to hold her in my lap, where a simple fender bender would have transformed her into a free-flying projectile.
Safety standards have changed, with a real effect on the family pocketbook. I (Amelia) wouldn’t even think of driving my toddler to the end of the block without strapping her into a plastic seat so enormous that she looks like an astronaut preparing to launch into outer space. We shelled out more than $100 for that seat, but the real expenditure was for our car. A few years ago I was driving a little two-door Mazda—more or less the modern equivalent of Elizabeth’s Beetle. But when the baby came, the Mazda had to go, replaced by a four-door car big enough for two car seats (with the thought that our first-born may one day have a younger brother or sister to pick on). It gets particularly tough for families with more than two kids. Jane Stewart, a stay-at-home mom in Denver, describes the consequences of having three children under the age of five. According to most experts, the Stewarts should harness those three kids in the back seat—not just with a seat belt, but into a bulky car seat or “booster seat” designed especially for children—until they are at least eight years old.109 Jane explains, “We have a Grand Cherokee and three car seats in the back. When the baby needs [the next-size car seat], we don’t think all three will fit. Then it will be time for a Suburban or a minivan.” A generation ago, the Stewarts could have fit their kids into the back seat of any sedan on the market, with room left over for the family dog. Today, even a Jeep Grand Cherokee—a car that weighs 4,000 pounds—is not big enough. The critics may be right that families don’t need all those gizmos in their cars, but we would certainly take sides with the Stewarts against anyone who argued that they didn’t need all that room.
By and large, families have spent prudently on their automobiles, or at least as prudently as they did a generation ago. And the money they are spending is paying off: The rate of child auto fatalities has declined steadily since the mid-1970s, thanks at least in part to safer cars and better car seats.110 For all the criticism hurled at car manufacturers (and car buyers), it is important to note that families drive stronger, safer cars that last a lot longer than they used to.
Families Then, Families Now: The Two-Income Trap
It’s time now to add it all up. Families are working harder and, thanks to Mom’s income, they are making more money than ever