Listen Money Matters - Free Your Inner Financial Badass. All The Stuff You Should Know About Personal Finance.

Charles Wheelan is a lecturer in economics at Dartmouth and has authored five books.  He joins us to discuss statistics, politics, and the economy.  Economics is the study of how we allocate scarce resources.  Poverty, health, education, are all affected by how we allocate resources so understanding that can help us to do a better, more fair job at that allocating.  To make money, you have to produce value.  Part of the reason for stagnant middle-class wages is because the value it used to produce is now being produced more cheaply, either through technology or outsourcing to countries where wages are very low.  Money is not the only factor in economics.  Sometimes money can stop people from doing something.  Organ donation for example.  Tying it to money makes people less likely to do it. Sometimes altruism is a greater driver than monetary gain.  Most people will stay where you put them.  Many people don’t save for retirement.  Some companies now automatically enroll new employees in 401K plans.  The employ