Between four and seven she was in an emergency department eleven times and admitted twice, once for four days on continuous albuterol, and if you have had a child on continuous albuterol you know that the worst part is not the fear, it is the shaking — the drug makes them tremble for hours afterward, and they are frightened by their own hands.

What that does to a household is not mainly financial, although it is financial.

What it does is that it makes every ordinary decision a calculation.

You do not take an apartment because of the apartment.

You take it because of the mold, and the carpet, and the distance to Yale New Haven, and whether the heat is forced air.

You do not take a job because of the job.