The typical family of today doesn't have a spouse in reserve that could enter the workforce if
necessary. They don't have the option of sending the wife into the workforce to help cushion the
blow of the husband’s job loss, because the wife is already in the workforce. And even with two
incomes, they are still spending 75% of their earnings on fixed expenses: expenses, again, like
the mortgage that cannot quickly or easily be cut back.
So you can see it's much harder for a family today to weather something going wrong without
depleting savings and/or resorting to debt which can spiral out of control.