Alissa Quart
Squeezed
Why Our Families Can’t Afford America
Ecco, 2018
Aperçu
Lawyers, teachers and PhDs are the new working poor.
Recommendation
Middle-class life used to mean families worked reasonable hours, owned modest homes, afforded vacations and set money aside for retirement. But since 1990, income has stagnated for most Americans. Why can’t people make ends meet? Journalist Alissa Quart says it’s not for lack of effort. She details how growing income inequality squeezes out the middle class. Her broad introduction to the plight of real people dealing with the human costs of “progress” – and to the larger economic forces driving middle-income families’ downward mobility – will appeal to those wondering why their carefully laid plans aren’t exactly working out.
Summary
About the Author
Alissa Quart, a journalist and executive editor for The Economic Hardship Reporting Project, also wrote Branded and Hothouse Kids.
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