The Key Evidences and Reasons for the Rise in Financial Insecurity over the Last Generation in "The Great Risk Shift"
1. Introduction
In "The Great Risk Shift", Jacob S. Hacker wrote that we have witnessed a massive transfer of financial risk from broad structures of insurance, including those sponsored by the corporate sector as well as by government, onto the fragile balance sheets of American families over the last generation (Jacob S. H., 2008). As Hacker revealed, the new financial Insecurity and the American Dream is a no-nonsense deconstruction of how current American policy has been systematically shifting financial risk from government and businesses onto the backs of individual people.
2. The Key Evidences for the Rise in Financial Insecurity over the Last Generation.
2.1 Income Volatility
At its peak in the mid-1990s, income instability was almost five times as great as it was in the early 1970s. And while it dropped during the boom of the late 1990s, it never fell below twice its starting level, and it shot up again in recent years to three times what it was in early 1970s (Jacob S. H., 2008). From one year to the next, family incomes rise and fall twice as much as they did in the mid-1970’s, on average. Jacob S. Hacker referred to this measure as income volatility and points out that a company with volatile profits is far less attractive to stock-market investors than a stable one.
2.2 Personal Bankruptcy Personal bankruptcy has gone from a rare occurrence to a routine one, with the number of households filing for bankruptcy rising from fewer than 290,000 in 1980 to more than two million in 2005.
2.3 The Mortgage Foreclosure Rate Americans are losing their homes at record rates. Since the early 1970s, the mortgage foreclosure rate has increased fivefold (Jacob S. H., 2008). From 2001 to 2005 an average of one in every sixty households with a mortgage fell into foreclosure a year.
2.4 Without the Protection against Ruinous Health Costs
Over a two-year period, more than 80 million adults and children(one out of three nonelderly Americans), 85 percent of them working or the kids of working parents- spend some time without the protection against ruinous health costs that insurance.
2.5 Guaranteed Pensions
Twenty-five years ago, 83 percent of medium and large firms offered traditional "defined-benefit" pensions that provided a predetermined monthly benefit for the remainder of a worker's life. Today, the share is below a third (Jacob S. H., 2006). Between 1989 and 1998 (a decade in which 401(k) coverage exploded and the stock market boomed) the share of families whose pension savings allowed them to replace at least half of their prior income in retirement actually declined, as old-style guaranteed pensions rapidly became a thing of the past.
3. The Reasons Given for the Rise in Financial Insecurity over the Last Generation
3.1 In "The Great Risk Shift", Hacker weaved together the erosion of health insurance and pensions, the rise of bankruptcy and foreclosure, and sharply rising income instability, revealing them as closely related phenomena which, rather than seeking to limit, the government and employers have actively increased despite the many costs to American families (Jacob S. H., 2006). He labeled this effort to relocate risk onto individuals and families the "Personal Responsibility Crusade."
3.2 Health coverage has become increasingly expensive and difficult to obtain; social security is relentlessly under attack; job security is a thing of the past; and some of the greatest risks and investments (such as years of expensive college training to prepare for a specific career) can be thoroughly upended with a shift in the labor market. The overused mantra of 'personal responsibility' is all too easily twisted into 'tough cookies for you if your child gets sick and needs expensive hospitalization.' Personal anecdotes are sprinkled throughout, yet the core of The Great Risk Shift is a big-picture analysis supported by the latest statistical trends.
3.3 With retirement plans in growing jeopardy while health coverage erodes, more and more economic risk is shifting from government and business onto the fragile shoulders of the American family.
3.4 Two great pillars of economic security (the family and the workplace) guarantee far less financial stability than they once did (Jacob S. H., 2008). The final leg of economic support (the public and private benefits that workers and families get when economic disaster strikes) has dangerously eroded as political leaders and corporations increasingly cut back protections of our health care, our income security, and our retirement pensions.
4. Conclusion
There are many key evidences for the rise in financial insecurity over the last generation. Meanwhile, the reasons given for the rise in the book are the slow death of guaranteed pensions, the erosion of health insurance and pensions, and the time crunch faced by two-income families, the rise of layoffs, the rise of bankruptcy and foreclosure, and sharply rising income instability and so on.

References
Jacob S. H., 2008, the Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream, Oxford University Press.
Jacob S. H., 2006, the Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care, and Retirement-And How You Can Fight Back, Oxford University Press.