Give him the money: women don't share

Short summary — key points, findings, and practical takeaway

• Speaker: Dr. Orion Taban (Psych Hacks).
• Source: Summary of a large Danish longitudinal study covering the entire Danish population, 2004–2018 (authors cited in the transcript as Yakobson Jorgensson and Low).

Study details

• Population-level: Denmark, 2004–2018.
• Treatment examined: a permanent 5% increase in income.

Main empirical finding

• The same permanent 5% income increase had opposite associations with fertility for men and women:
  • Men: ~1% more likely to have children.
  • Women: ~4% less likely to have children.
• Age pattern:
  • Effect strongest under age 30 (women’s peak fertility).
  • Men’s positive association with fertility persisted more consistently across ages.

Interpretations — two framings discussed

• Researcher interpretation:
  • Higher female earnings create “golden handcuffs” — the opportunity cost of leaving paid work for childcare increases, so women delay or avoid having children.
• Dr. Taban’s interpretation:
  • Partly evolutionary/behavioral framing: men are more likely to use extra income to start families (share resources), whereas women with higher earnings keep resources for themselves and are less likely to rely on men/children as providers.
  • He characterizes this as an economically rational outcome of women “cutting out the middleman” (men) when they have their own resources.

Broader context Taban provides

• Falling birth rates are attributed more to economic factors (e.g., young men’s financial instability) than to social media or cultural decadence.
• Historically, women have often relied on men (and sometimes children) to secure resources; direct female income changes those incentives.
• Child support is framed, in his account, as a mechanism that extracts male resources rather than serving only child needs.

Policy / practical takeaway

• If the goal is to raise fertility, direct resources toward improving men’s economic position. Taban summarizes this bluntly:

  “Give him the money.”

Actionable bullets (implications)

• Consider policies that target male economic stability and earnings if concerned about low birth rates.
• Recognize economic readiness as a dominant factor in family-formation timing (especially for men).
• Expect that increases in women’s permanent income may, according to the study, reduce their likelihood of childbearing.
• Be cautious: interpretations vary — opportunity cost versus behavioral/evolutionary explanations.

Tone and caveats

• The presentation is polemical and contested: it mixes epidemiological data with evolutionary and cultural claims.
• Taban notes Denmark’s egalitarian context while reporting the pattern, using that to argue the effect is not solely due to sexism.
• He also promotes his own book and paid offerings, which is relevant to how the material is framed.

Notable locations, products, and speakers

• Location / study setting: Denmark (population-level data, 2004–2018).
• Speaker: Dr. Orion Taban.
• Products / resources mentioned:
  • Book: The Value of Others (by Taban)
  • Novel: Starry Night
  • Private community: The Captain’s Quarters
  • Weekly newsletter and paid consultations