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No.243 SIM音読用英文

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Times are Suddenly Tough for Many Americans
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In a recent Washington Post column,

economist Robert Frank asked a provocative question:

"Why is it that in the 1960s,

when only one parent worked outside the home

in the typical American household,

most middle-class families could meet their financial obligations?

And why now,

when two-income households are the norm,

are many families struggling to pay their bills?"

According to the government's own inflation calculator,

a modest $15,000 income in 1965

had the same buying power

as $101,000 today.

A lot of two-income American families

are pulling down a 100 grand these days.

Yet by all accounts

they are working longer and longer hours

and are plagued with worry.

Many who cannot keep up mortgage payments

are losing their homes

for foreclosure.

What's different now

from 1965?

Robert Frank blames something

called housing creep.

Over the decades, millions of Americans fled the cities

for the suburbs

- not just to escape racial unrest,

but also in search of better schools.

To get their kids into these schools,

Frank argues,

many families had to somehow afford bigger homes

in better neighborhoods.

Lenders were all too happy to help

by dangling cheap and ready credit.

Even more fast and loose credit stoked Americans' appetite

for computers, travel, fine food, and consumer comforts.

If it took two jobs

to afford the suburban good life,

so be it.

But now, quite suddenly,

home-loan and other credit rates are skyrocketing,

and the costs of food, gasoline and health care are spiking

beyond normal adjustments for inflation.

The result is

that two incomes are not always enough

to cover the bills.

More than housing creep

is dampening the American dream

of material comfort and security.


I'm Ted Landphair.
by danueno | 2008-05-19 17:56 | SIM音読用英文


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