Springwise: A being space for learning English. a gym-style membership to a language learning lounge. kinda cool.

collapse of the middle class

I came across this fantastic lecture by Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren from UC Berkley entitled The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class. Warren seems to be the media’s go-to lately when talking about bankruptcy and credit card debt. I’ve seen her in several New York Times articles, on Frontline, and in the documentary Maxed Out.

The lecture talks about the change in the middle class from the mid-70s to today and presents some really interesting data. Warren spends the majority of the lecture talking about the decline in savings rates and asks the question “where is all the money going”. Around the 15-minute mark she starts going into different items and shows how basically all consumer goods (like clothes, food, home appliances, etc) are 20-50% cheaper today (inflation adjusted) than back in the mid-70s. Where the money is going is in mortgage payments (up 75% excluding upkeep costs), owning a second car (50% increase), and health care costs (up 75%). She then spends quite a bit of time talking about why the increase in housing and health care costs create a “living on the edge” situation for dual income families.

The part which I found really interesting was her discussion about education and bankruptcy in the middle class. On education, she mentions how in the mid-70s the majority of Americans believed you could enter “the middle class” with a high school diploma and a strong work ethic. Today, twice as many Americans believe the moon landing was faked than believe you can make it into the middle class on a high school education. She then goes on to discuss how that means, in a generation, getting to the middle class went from 12 years of taxpayer paid education to 2 years of paid pre-school, 12 years of taxpayer paid education, and 4 years of paid post-secondary.

The numbers on bankruptcy filing was genuinely surprising to me. Ninety percent of families file for bankruptcy because of one of three reasons: job loss, medical problem in the family, or family breakup. Nearly half of those who filed had two of those three. “More children live in homes that will file for bankruptcy this year than live in homes that will file for divorce. This has been true since the late 1990s.” Put another way, “you know anyone who got divorced in the last 6 or 7 years? Know any children who come from divorced families in the last 6 or 7 years? Than statistically speaking, assuming you know a random cross sampling of Americans, you know more people whose family has filed for bankruptcy.” She goes on to mention how there is an enormous stigma attached to bankruptcy. Also telling, in some research Warren had done, 85% of people they spoke to who had filed for bankruptcy had kept it a secret from their parents, a best friend, or their children.

Here’s the full video. It’s an hours long so you might want to get in a comfy seat. Also just wanted to give a hat tip to Little Bites of Point for the link. That blog comes across some great youtube content concerning economics.


YouTube - Interview with Ricardo Semler. interesting stuff about education, the modern work environment, and how to look at a career.

Serfs of the Turf - New York Times. Michael Lewis on the hypocritical business of “amateur” college football.

Malcolm Gladwell on Race and IQ scores. it’s gladwell, of course you should read it.

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. Over the last few weeks I had heard about this “last lecture” by Randy Pausch, a 47 year old professor from CMU who’s dieing of cancer. I stumbled across it this evening and I’d recommend it to everyone to watch.

Kyle commenting on George Lucas, commenting on the state of education.

Bates College | Address by Dean Kamen. a friendly reminder of what you should be doing with your education.

Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops - New York Times “After seven years, there was literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement — none”. via kyle

Crooks and Liars » Maher Blasts Regent Law School’s Transformation of the DoJ. this story should really get more press.

Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school - The Boston Globe “So Pat Robertson is pumping out Bush’s lawyers. That sounds like a great idea”. via ram.

For Girls, It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too - New York Times. profile on some over-achieving high school seniors in the northeast. what a fucking pressure cooker. i was so lazy compared to any of these kids.

Federal Way schools restrict ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Seems some inconvenient christians didn’t approve. This is so disappointing for Seattle.

BBC NEWS | Huge cost of Iranian brain drain. not suprised. at all. via ram.

Milton Friedman, economist, dies at 94 - IHT

Pennylicious » Billionaire Dropouts. in case you were thinking of dropping out.

Arne Kislenko - WWII: The Soviet Experience. TV Ontario has a show called Big Ideas which is dedicated to the art of public speaking. They have an annual contest for best lecturer in Ontario and this won last year. And yes, it’s a really interesting lecture.

A Teacher’s Year, a C.E.O.’s Day: The Pay’s Similar - New York Times. the sad state of teaching in america.

globeandmail.com : Universities boycott Maclean’s rankings. i remember when i was a kid and maclean’s was actually good. now it’s somewhere between Time and People. And this is a long list of schools: UBC, Simon Fraser, Calgary, UofT, and Dal to name a few. via thisyear

Hello, Young Workers: One Way to Reach the Top Is to Start There. nytimes article about recent research about the long terms effect of graduating into a boom or bust.