The Demographic Dilemma and Your Dollars w/ Melissa Kearney #1046
How to Money
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2025
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Demographics are destiny” is a phrase we’ve all heard. And while the future of America isn’t a foregone conclusion, declining birth rates, rising inequality, and the dramatic increase of single-parent households are having a profound impact on our society, impacting the overall economy. With all of this in mind, another question is raised: how should we respond and what money choices should we be making now? To help answer this question, we’re joined by Melissa Kearney who is an economist known for her extensive research on social policy, poverty, inequality, and the economics of families and fertility. Melissa is author of the book, The Two-Parent Privilege, and she’s a professor of economics at Notre Dame. We discuss:
- How pessimism about the economy often contrasts with individual financial well-being
- Declining birth rates are a global concern with potential economic consequences
- Marriage is not just a romantic arrangement, it has economic implications too
- Immigration could be a solution to counteract declining birth rates
- Declining birth rates could lead to challenges in social security systems
- Investing strategies may need to adapt to demographic changes
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Transcript
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| 1:32.5 | Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, |
| 1:38.0 | and today I'm talking the demographic dilemma and your dollars with Melissa Carney. |
| 2:18.3 | Okay. Demographic Dilemma and Your Dollars with Melissa Carney. Yeah, demographics for destiny. We've all heard that phrase, right? Looking at current trends can offer insight into what the future might hold. Declining birth rates, rising inequality, and the uptick of single parent households. It's having a profound impact on our society. And it's impacting the economy as a whole. We're sidesteping the culture war battles on these topics today, |
| 2:23.8 | but I do want to discuss how current trends and demographic realities are going to affect our society, |
| 2:30.0 | are going to affect our economic vibrancy and the money choices that we should be making now as individuals. |
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