The Two-Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren & Amelia Warren Tyagi
Roshini Cope
Roshini Cope, aka Glamazini, is a life coach and video creator who gained a following for her natural hair tutorials, which evolved into authentic personal stories of healing with a consistent dash of humor. She is a black woman healing helping other black women heal, expand their self-awareness, reclaim their joy, and create the life they want. Work with Roshini 🤎✨🤎
5 Comments
Me
I’m glad you read the cover, Ini (I don’t really know you like that to be using your nickname, but I hope you don’t mind–if you do, I won’t do it again). I think I’ll actually pick this book up because on first listen, I disagree with the premise of the book (being the fault of “overbidding” basic needs instead of overconsumption). My first reaction when listening to you was overconsumption is what fuels the overbidding–the law of supply/demand. I believe this society is set up to some degree in line with nature: it takes two to keep it going (i.e. without man AND woman, we cease to exist), but as long as everyone’s succumbs to the perception of needing to live in the best house and send their kids to the “best” schools (for privileges they believe will make it that much easier for their kids to live middle class lives in the future, but may or may not have been available or even requisite to their fortunes thus far) when they come into money, they effectively bury themselves in the debt of their own luxuries. When I get through the book (hopefully before 2-3 months, since I’m a bit of a finance geek), I’ll send you my own opinion (if you care to hear/read). This one caught my attention only because I’m bothered by a lot of the blame game literature that keeps surfacing, making it the fault of everyone/thing else, but the individual who actually has control of his/her destiny and choices. A lot of commentators like to speak of society as if it isn’t just a sum of the individuals, so when the grits hit the fan, it’s a pity fest instead of an active solution search. Those are my pre-$0.02. 🙂
glamazIni
Please come back when you’re finished and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear them! 🙂
Me
I finally got the book. I’m about 25% through it, and so far it’s lining up the way I thought it would–although I wasn’t expecting it to make education just about the sole reason for the middle-class crisis (which I believe is baloney). I’m hoping to finish by this weekend. Just wanted to let you know I haven’t forgotten.
Me
Hi Ini, I finally finished the book yesterday (beware, long post approaches).
Here’s the review I left on Amazon:
“The authors of this book spend two-thirds of the time blaming Everyone except the people who put themselves in this “trap” on purpose. This book is a warcry for middle class welfare. I find it hard to believe that the education system forces parents to move to a high-priced surburbia just to get away from “marginal” academics rather than assemble as a group of concerned parents to push the education agenda in more reasonably priced neighborhoods. The real trap is the sense of entitlement that the authors and their followers feel for luxury homes, vehicles, schools, and insurance plans. I will give them credit for highlighting the decay of the american financial system and for offering the few fire drill tips they pesented, but give me a break. I had to sit through two-thirds of the books whining to get to any valuable information. And that was after sitting through all their fancy “statistics” that murk up numbers presentation just as well as any politician does.”
My favorite comment from another reader that touches on a lot of what I feel was the one titled “Some Excellent Observations but Over-Blames ‘the System'”, posted on July 4, 2008 by D. Weisberg “kayak angler” (if you want to look it up. Under his comment, someone made the comment that it’s not consumers’ faults for not researching all their purchases because people in general don’t do this. That irked me enough to leave this final comment regarding the book (because I agree with D Weisberg that this book perpetuates that lack of responsibility people, in general, take for their financial habits & management):
“Specifically because this is a one/two-time purchase is why consumers should put forth the effort to prevent getting screwed. People spend time to decide on what school to go to, what job to apply for, what neighborhood to live in, but you’re proposing that it’s someone else’s responsibility to wrap their lives up in a bow and hand deliver it to them? It’s foolish to let a non-personal corporate or even government entity decide what’s in your best interest. Consumer protection groups can only make the information easier for people to access, and governments can only set floors and ceilings to the ambition of a for-profit corporation. No one can force a consumer to read the warning labels and bargain hunt. If they aren’t willing to do that much, they need to stick to living with their parents and not complain about a society they helped create. No one’s entitled to the best possible outcome. If you want anything more than a fair, equitable, arms-length transaction (i.e. a great home that can support a family with kids in a high-quality school district for a reasonable price that’s within your two-income trap of a budget even after unexpected life changes), YOU have to do the footwork to get it and make sure it works in your reality. Just because “people in general don’t do this” doesn’t mean it’s society at-large’s responsibility to spoon-feed it to anyone.”
glamazIni
O_O
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thanks for sharing! LOL!!
girl i’m playing…i see your point, thanks for coming back and sharing it with me.