Penna Dexter
Why aren’t our 20 and 30-year-olds having more children? One reason is economic. Should the U.S. government consider subsidizing childbearing?
Robert Whaples, professor of economics at Wake Forest University suggests some less expensive and non-taxpayer-funded ways to convince Americans to have more kids. He lists these ideas in an article in National Review entitled, “We Need More Babies.”

First, transporting kids is expensive.  One shocker to families expecting a third child is learning that the back seat in many cars and SUVs is not wide enough for three car seats. Transporting a third or  fourth child could necessitate a minivan or something larger.Robert Whaples points to research by economist Steve Levitt showing “that child safety seats are no better than seat belts in reducing fatalities among children ages two to six.” Yet, in many states, six-year-olds, who are under a certain weight, are required by law to ride in car seats. Dr. Whaples recommends relaxing those laws.

Secondly, and importantly, the cost of housing can deter couples from planning a family. Many localities have zoning laws that prevent affordable homes from being built. Dr. Whaples says relaxing these restrictions would be “pro-natal.”
Student debt is another reason couples delay having children. As a university economics department chair, Dr. Whaples has some solutions that could be implemented at the college level. One is for “middle-tier colleges” to shift resources from research to teaching. Another is to “mainstream the idea of having students graduate in three years, which would cut their debt and give them an extra year to achieve career goals before starting a family.”
Another idea involves potential grandparents. Dr. Whaples suggests scaling down the posh wedding and, instead saving to help the newlyweds afford a future grandchild.

The birth rate is dropping partially because many young people no longer see marriage as a given. Parents, churches, and governments should do what they can to fix that situation.

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Kerby Anderson
Now that most of the 2022 midterm elections have been certified, it’s worth looking at some important electoral trends. They will give us some idea of what may take place in the 2024 elections. Lest you think this is premature, consider that next month the first presidential debate will take place.
The most surprising trend is the number of close elections. In previous commentaries, I’ve talked about close elections. But the latest results are worth discussing. The bipartisan portal Ballotpedia reports that 103 legislative races around the country were decided by under 100 votes.
This research result underscores the reality of the phrase “every vote counts.” If you don’t think so, just ask the person who lost their race by less than 100 votes. As one commentator put it, these races were decided by the number of people you could find inside a Walmart any weekend.
Rarely is there a close race for governor or congress. But close elections do occur in state legislative races, where 98 seats were decided by such a narrow margin. And that narrow margin also could determine which party has majority control of the legislature. Many of the other close races occurred in rural districts with small populations.
Two implications come from these results from the 2022 midterm elections. First, there is great value in a political party developing sophisticated “get out the vote” strategies. When a tiny minority can determine the outcome of an election, there is great motivation to get people to the polls. Second, it illustrates the importance of you going to vote and bringing like-minded people with you to the polls.
Each election, we remind people that “every vote counts.” This latest research proves that is true.

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Kerby Anderson
In previous commentaries, I have talked about the dollar’s loss of value. We often provide a chart that was generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It shows that the dollar has lost 95 percent of its purchasing power.
In a recent keynote speech in Prague, Michael Saylor (MicroStrategy) put together a presentation with numerous graphs. They show even more accurately the decline of the dollar as well as the decline of other currencies around the world. His YouTube presentation makes a powerful statement.
For example, he has one slide that shows that the US dollar loses 99 percent of its value when compared to gold (1923-2023). Gold is not scarce. More of it is pulled from the ground each year. He then shows another graph of something even more scarce. The US dollar loses 99.8 percent of its value compared to the 50 most valuable companies in the S&P (1923-2023).
This is worse for other countries because foreign currencies are collapsing against the dollar. The Argentine Peso (ARS) loses 99.9 percent versus the dollar (2001-2023) in the last twenty years. His chart shows that the Turkish Lira loses 95 percent versus the dollar, but its latest loss is probably 97 percent. And the Indian Rupee loses 90 percent versus the dollar since 1980.
This puts our current financial circumstances in some perspective. The dollar is like a melting ice cube. The value is declining every year. But imagine what it is like to live in many of these other countries with even more inflation and currency declining in value.
He concludes by showing a chart of asset performance since August 2020. Those percentages show how to preserve your wealth in a world where currency is declining in value.

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