Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The dual income trap which the Deputy mentioned refers, as he knows, is the subject of a popular book written by Senator Elizabeth Warren and her daughter. It discusses the financial difficulties experienced by American middle-class families with children due to the steady rise in many fixed costs such as health care, child care and finding a good home. Senator Warren and her daughter argue that two income families today actually have less discretionary income left over compared to single income, mostly male breadwinner, families a generation ago.

However, their solution to the issue is to manage living costs for these families, such as housing, health care and education, and not to move back in time to an era when women were not given the choice to have a career and earn their own money. Instead, they argue that the solution to financial hardships lies in the sustainable pricing of necessary services.

One of the practical policy options they advocate is offering vouchers to families so they can send their children to good schools anywhere they choose. The book has its critics as well as its defenders, but we also must remember that it discusses the economic lives of the American middle classes.

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