MicroComputers for the Social Sciences

cognitive fluency

William West, 39, thought earning a B.A. in IT in 2009 would put him on a fast track to management. He wound up $70,000 in debt with no shot at a promotion.

At the height of the boom, USA Today published a poll in which 81 percent of young adults said getting rich was their top priority (and 51 percent gave the same priority to becoming famous). Americans now face a new personal finance reality.

the failure to own a home is generally not a source of stress in the same way that drowning in debt and the inability to retire are.

eft to themselves, people tend to sort themselves

out into communities of like-minded neighbors.

None of this should be surprising. Individuals and groups of all sorts have always differed from one another in many ways, throughout centuries of history and in countries around the world. L