Axios

America faces an aging crisis: We have too few young people supporting too many older people — at the very moment Social Security, our national retirement program, nears insolvency.

• To make matters worse, young people are increasingly scared to have kids — in part because they fear AI will make finding and keeping a job harder.
• The data: The U.S. fertility rate has hit a record low of about 1.6 births per woman — far below the replacement rate needed to keep our safety nets stable.

President Trump sure wants to give Americans money — he's talked up tariff-funded rebate checks, a $1,776 "warrior dividend" and plans to send billions of dollars to farmers, and that's on top of record-breaking tax refund checks expected next year.

Why it matters: Giving cash is a go-to White House move, one that pre-dates Trump. It's a crowd pleaser, typically reserved for moments when the economy is in clear distress — except that's not quite where the U.S. is now.