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The Two Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren

What is wrong with the following statement?

"But the two-income family didn't just lose its safety net. By sending both adults into the labor force, these families actually increased the chances that they would need that safety net. In fact, they doubled the risk. With two adults in the workforce, the dual-income family has double the odds that someone could get laid off, downsized, or other wise left without a paycheck. Mom or Dad could suddenly lose a job."

You've just read the fundamental thesis of The Two-Income Trap. If you agree with it--although I truly hope you're a better critical thinker than that--you'll have your views reinforced. Thus reading this book would be an unadulterated waste of your time.

If on the other hand you are capable of critical thinking and you can successfully see through hilariously unrigorous "logic" of the above statement, then this book will still be a waste of your time (unless you like reading books for the sheer pleasure of laughing at their lack of rigor).

Either way, you'll have to wade through 162 pages of hand-wringing and one-sided statistics to get to any actual solutions--and those solutions should have been written on a 3x5 card that says:

1) Don't incur high fixed costs--manage your big-ticket spending items like housing and cars so they don't crush you down the road.
2) Don't compete with your neighbors.
3) Save money.

Better still, watch this Saturday Night Live skit instead. There. I just saved you four precious hours of your life.
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