A family relying on a teacher's salary or a city employee's salary is solidly middle class as long as that money's coming in. When it's cut off, they're committed to financial obligations that will quickly turn them upside down. |
Albany's changes to the homestead protection are far more important in the long run than Washington's changes to the bankruptcy laws, ... An increase in the state homestead exemption tells families: Keep your home safe; don't keep borrowing against it. |
Many of these people are sophisticated business people for whom markets have reversed... They don't need to know how to balance a checkbook. |
Nobody's safe. Health insurance? That didn't protect 1 million Americans who were financially ruined by illness or medical bills last year. |
The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke. |
They turned the bankruptcy courts into collection agencies for credit card companies. That means there's less protection for victims of Katrina. |