Parents are Pressured to Make Sure Their Kids Succeed

For middle class earning between $40,000 and $100,000, 44 percent could not come up with $400 in an emergency. 27 percent of those making more than $100,000 also could not. This is not poverty. So what is it? Rebecca Rosen on The Atlantic argues the financial insecurity “that has no name” derived from the costs associated with raising children, especially housing and education. Not surprisingly housing and education the biggest sources of debt. American middle class households are falling into circles of financial hell as they are pressured to make sure their kids succeed. Rosen pointed out that “housing and education appear to be two distinct categories of spending, but for many families they are one and the same: For the most part, where a family lives determines where their kids go to school, and, as a result, where schools are better, houses are more costly. This is both cause and effect: Where houses are expensive, the tax base is bigger and schools have better resources, and where schools are better, there is more demand for housing.” (theatlantic.com)