Squeezed : why our families can't afford America / Alissa Quart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Quart, Alissa, author.

Contributor:

Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Middle class.

Economic conditions.

Households--Economic aspects.

United States--Economic conditions--2009-.

United States.

Households--Economic aspects--United States.

Households.

Middle class--United States--Economic conditions.

Genre:

Nonfiction.

Physical Description:

312 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]

Summary:

"Squeezed" weaves together intimate reporting with sharp and lively critique to show how the high cost of parenthood and our increasingly unstable job market have imploded the middle-class American Dream for many families, and offers surprising solutions for how we might change things. Families today are squeezed on every side--from high childcare costs and harsh employment policies to workplaces without paid family leave or even dependable and regular working hours. Many realize that attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become impossible. Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects--from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses--have been wrung out by a system that doesn't support them, and enriches only a tiny elite. Interlacing her own experience with close-up reporting on families that are just getting by, Quart reveals parenthood itself to be financially overwhelming, except for the wealthiest. She offers real solutions to these problems, including outlining necessary policy shifts, as well as detailing the DIY tactics some families are already putting into motion, and argues for the cultural reevaluation of parenthood and caregiving. Written in the spirit of Barbara Ehrenreich and Jennifer Senior, Squeezed is an eye-opening page-turner. Powerfully argued, deeply reported, and ultimately hopeful, it casts a bright, clarifying light on families struggling to thrive in an economy that holds too few options. It will make readers think differently about their lives and those of their neighbors"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Inconceivable : pregnant and squeezed

Hyper-educated and poor

Extreme day care : the deep cost of American work

Outclassed : life at the bottom of the top

The nanny's struggle

Uber dads : moonlighting in the gig economy

The second act industry : or the midlife do-over myth

Squeezed houses

The rise of 1 percent television

Squeezed by the robots

Conclusion: the secret life of inequality.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-295) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780062412256

0062412256

9780062412263

0062412264

9780062847904

0062847902

9780062847911

0062847910

OCLC:

1041132779