Not Keeping Up with Our Parents: The Decline of the Professional Middle Class

by Nan Mooney

Book Overview

Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with people all across America, (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents explores how stagnant wages, debt, and escalating costs for tuition, health care, and home... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080701138X
• ISBN13: 9780807011386
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Beacon Press (MA)
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Must read this enlightening book

This is a really important book... I highly recommend it. It gives an enlightening perspective to our generation's career choices. Many of us struggle with our career choices. Should I choose a career path that I find socially responsible, creative, and fulfilling? Or should I choose a career that will provide my family financial stability and opportunities? It seems that our dream job should have all those aspects, but we often find ourselves having to make the choice. Nan's book analyzes how we got to the place we are at now. She uncovers all the uneasy topics and facts that we don't like to discuss at dinner table, much less barbecues or cocktail parties. I found the book to be very well rounded with thoughtful analysis with good practical recommendations for change.

Smart, Timely Book

In this book, Nan Mooney strikes a cord with those in today's middle class. The real stories are fascinating. A smart, timely read. We all thought we'd find it easy to have a better live/make more money than our parents did. The reality isn't what we all expected. This book is full of great insights into the situation; I recommend it.

an eye-opener

My curiosity about (Not)Keeping Up With Our Parents was piqued after going to a reading by the author at a local bookstore. After reading it I was a bit shocked, but in a good way. I thought the interviews were well balanced and helped to shed light on this problem that many, many people have but are embarassed to talk about.

awesome book

I thought this book was quite fantastic. Growing up my friends and I were told that if we went to college and got "a good job" we would be able to own our own home and send our own children to college. Well, guess what? This has turned out to not be even remotely true. I think this book is very important and is addressing a problem that I see everywhere and yet does not seem to get talked about anywhere. The housing market collapse and resulting economic slowdown have just been icing on the cake. Thank you Nan Mooney for putting into words the experience of the disappearance of the middle class.

A thoughtful look at values and money

I'm not sure what book the one-star reviewer read. In [Not] Keeping Up with Our Parents, Nan Mooney explains how life has gotten harder for middle-class professionals. While housing, health insurance, food and student loan costs have risen, incomes have not. What's more, social programs such as Social Security and corporate pension programs have dwindled. This means that people who've made reasonable decisions--to study, and to pursue responsible careers that interest them--are having a hard time making ends meet. One of her fundamental points is that the crunch isn't necessarily the individual's fault. It's not that we're frittering away our money on lattes. Rather, it's that life has gotten more expensive, and our incomes haven't kept up. It's an important book, and a timely one. Here's hoping as we reshape our country with the upcoming presidential election, that we elect leaders who want to keep the middle class dream alive.