Squeezed: Why American Families Struggle Financially - Budgeting Tips & Financial Stress Relief for Modern Living

I'm surprised at the anger and resentment in some of these reviews. I don't usually write reviews, but this particular book struck a chord with me and I feel obliged to share my view in contrast to some of the anger claiming Ms. Quart's book is a whiny over-privileged Millennial manifesto.I identified with this book and the people spotlighted because I feel a camaraderie with them. I, too, came from an upper middle class household, where I was blessed with having a family wealthy enough to send me to private university. I am a Millennial, and I was raised to believe I could do anything and be anyone, and that's not a bad thing. I earned a master's degree in the sciences and took out a modest student loan not to cover tuition, but to help with living expenses in the city where I attended school. I have been fortunate enough to be well employed in my field for the past decade. I own a home, I send my children to a good daycare, I drive a new car, and have excellent credit. I am, by any measure, successful.But I am struggling. I'm struggling to pay my mortgage, my car payments, my student loan payments each month. I have nearly nothing in my bank account after my bills are paid. I freelance my skills on the side to earn extra pennies simply to stay afloat, and count down the months until my eldest will enter kindergarten and the financial burden of daycare will ease.Yes, there are people much worse off than me and I sympathize with them. Yes, there are those who went into Tech or Finance and are doing astronomically better than me. But that's the whole point: the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. All the folks in the middle are becoming invisible. To be middle class in the US is becoming a complicated, increasingly difficult feat to accomplish. And I feel like Ms. Quart's book is primarily about people like me: the ones with all the ammunition in their pocket to "make it" in the middle class. But we are struggling in a way that our parent's generation never did. We are, for better or for worse, breaking new ground.In the middle of the last century, jobs were secure, wages were increasing...pensions were real! People weren't paying hundreds of dollars each month to student loans, thousands of dollars each year to daycare, and their employers weren't paying hand over foot for health insurance. All of these things that we consider so necessary in the middle class- insurance, loans, childcare, mortgages- these are all run by profit-earning companies. Our capitalist economy has gotten away from us.I get so angry when I see economic growth measured simply by the number of jobs. What about people who are underemployed? What about people who are working in their field and haven't seen a salary increase in years? What about the people who are responsible for paying for their own health insurance, their own retirement? They are employed and contributing to our economy, but are they comfortable? Can they pay their bills? Likely not. Our nation does not take care of its workers like it used to. It is a systemic, complex problem that will likely take another generation to fix. I don't know what the future looks like. But for now, it's my generation that is hurting and it is comforting to read a book like this simply to know that we are not alone in this struggle. It gives me hope. Thank you, Ms. Quart, for writing such an important book, for telling these people's stories, and for doing it in such an eloquent way.