Abstract
For many undergraduates, applying the sociological imagination to financial failure can be exceptionally difficult. Like most Americans, they adhere to the “bootstrap” analogy of financial security and success. To overcome this narrow and non-sociological perspective, I introduce students to several financial stumbles that are common and that result primarily from structural factors and shifts. Ultimately, they learn about consumer bankruptcy as a culminating event of several of these smaller stumbles. I also rely on students’ stories of their family’s financial collapse—these normalize the failure and because they are so personal, encourage other students to think about how easily something similar could happen to them.