The Ben Shapiro Show - June 18, 2026


The Truth About the American Affordability Crisis And Why Don Lemon Is Wrong


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

198.78

Word count

2,180

Sentence count

141

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

11

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Don Lemon and JD Vance are both wrong on family policy. Plus, a viral clip of LeBron James saying stay-at-home moms are "lazy" and a new piece from The Daily Beast on why people don't have as many kids.

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Ben Shapiro Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 You've heard the argument before.
00:00:01.000 Americans aren't having as many kids, or they're having no kids at all because people feel like they can't afford children anymore.
00:00:07.000 This argument is incorrect.
00:00:08.000 I will tell you exactly why.
00:00:10.000 Plus, we'll get to how the heck Don Lemon and JD Vance are both kind of wrong on family policy.
00:00:15.000 Don Lemon, way more wrong.
00:00:16.000 Plus, a viral clip of LeBron James saying that stay at home moms are somehow lazy.
00:00:20.000 So, people keep talking about an affordability crisis.
00:00:24.000 Don Lemon is blaming JD Vance for affordability problems, which is a hell of a take.
00:00:31.000 This is a bizarre take here from Don Lemon.
00:00:34.000 Instead of saying that the birth rates are down or that people can't afford to have kids, right, that he's saying that this country is now anti family and anti child. 0.99
00:00:47.000 That's bullshit. 0.98
00:00:48.000 This country is not anti family and it's not anti child. 1.00
00:00:51.000 It's because of your horrible policies and because you have done such a terrible job with the economy that people can no longer afford, as you said, Daniel, to have children.
00:01:01.000 That's what you should be saying, and that's how he should have been corrected.
00:01:03.000 He said, I don't know anyone.
00:01:05.000 Who's anti child or anti family?
00:01:06.000 I'm not anti child or family unless I'm on an airplane and a kid is screaming, but I'm just saying.
00:01:14.000 I mean, first of all, people should get over kids screaming on airplanes, otherwise, people can't travel.
00:01:17.000 But let's be very clear.
00:01:19.000 What's hilarious about this is that Don Lemon and JD Vance are quite similar in economic matters.
00:01:24.000 And the vice president is not exactly a small government conservative, he is a large scale advocate of government policy designed at fostering a lowering of family costs.
00:01:33.000 Now, my opinion is.
00:01:36.000 That many of the proposals that he puts forward are actually not useful in generating more childbearing and rearing.
00:01:42.000 And that actually, both Lemon and Vance are wrong.
00:01:45.000 And the reason why people are not having kids is not because of affordability issues.
00:01:48.000 The reason people are not having kids is because they just don't want to have that many kids.
00:01:52.000 They see them as a net cost, they do not feel a religious obligation to have children.
00:01:56.000 This is why you may notice that many of the poorest communities in America, if they are religious, have lots of kids.
00:02:03.000 It turns out that many of the poorest places on planet Earth have lots of kids.
00:02:07.000 The actual reason why people are having fewer kids is that as countries get richer, people have fewer kids because they start to see kids not as some sort of economic asset, but as an economic cost.
00:02:17.000 And unless you have a religious obligation to have kids, and kids are very difficult and very time consuming, they're also the greatest thing in life.
00:02:24.000 I have four, almost five.
00:02:26.000 Like, kids are awesome, they are terrific.
00:02:29.000 But the reason why westernized countries have fewer kids is because of irreligion.
00:02:34.000 That is the actual reason.
00:02:37.000 But all of this ties into, once again, this idea that the government can solve all problems, which is not true.
00:02:42.000 There's a really good piece over at the dispatch, a publication that I have mixed feelings about.
00:02:47.000 Uh, and, uh, the authors, Aaron Brown, Michael Mendelson, and Cliff Asnes, they talk about affordability.
00:02:53.000 And what they make the argument, they make a really interesting argument.
00:02:55.000 They say basically everyone is lumping into one term affordability, a bunch of discrete problems.
00:03:01.000 So what they say are, is quote, there are two serious affordability problems in America.
00:03:06.000 They look nothing like each other and they need opposite solutions.
00:03:09.000 The first is the destitute tale.
00:03:11.000 A real but small share of Americans are in genuinely miserable financial situations.
00:03:15.000 They have more bills than they can pay.
00:03:16.000 They're one missed paycheck from eviction.
00:03:18.000 They frequently have literally zero money. 1.00
00:03:20.000 The unemployable woman with the worthless degree from a fraudulent for profit college is in this category.
00:03:24.000 So, as a 58 year old who got laid off from a manufacturing job, exhausted his savings, can't get hired anywhere, and watches his wife work double shifts at Walmart, these people need money.
00:03:32.000 The institutions that make their lives worse, the for profits that produce unemployable graduates, the medical billing systems designed to confuse people into paying twice, need to be regulated or eliminated.
00:03:42.000 Both of those statements are true.
00:03:44.000 Neither is in serious political dispute.
00:03:47.000 But there's another group of people.
00:03:50.000 And that group of people are people who are essentially middle class and they can't afford to live in big cities.
00:04:00.000 These are people who have student debt but also make a high income, and the affordability in New York is just difficult.
00:04:08.000 They say the first example, when it comes to the deeply poor, is a redistribution problem requiring cash transfers and safety nets and regulatory crackdowns on the worst predators.
00:04:18.000 The second is a supply problem.
00:04:20.000 And requires zoning reform, occupational licensing reform, and breaking up the entrenched cartels in housing, healthcare, education, and childcare.
00:04:26.000 The packages don't overlap.
00:04:28.000 And the point that these authors make is that Democrats are fond of using these solutions for people who are legitimately dirt poor to apply to people who just can't afford a nice apartment in New York.
00:04:38.000 And Republicans are fond of using these sort of clear up the economic skies and allow people to flourish arguments for people who legitimately can't take care of themselves.
00:04:48.000 Now, I think the second critique is not really true.
00:04:50.000 Republicans Have, particularly on the local and state level, very often advocated for welfare systems that take care of the poorest.
00:04:58.000 The hardest problem in that area is trying to construct a public policy that doesn't allow people to free ride, that doesn't actually incentivize people not to work, for example.
00:05:07.000 This is why Republicans were for welfare reform, not welfare elimination back in the 90s.
00:05:12.000 But when people pretend that the affordability crisis in America is all a problem of the government just grabbing more money and spewing it out in random directions, that is not true in the slightest.
00:05:25.000 In other cultural news, LeBron James is making some weird statements.
00:05:32.000 And by the way, we do have a YouTube coming out for Father's Day on fatherhood.
00:05:35.000 So you're going to want to check out our YouTube channel.
00:05:36.000 I have some words about fatherhood.
00:05:38.000 But LeBron talked about how he can't have a stay at home wife. 0.84
00:05:44.000 And somehow this is bad to have a stay at home wife.
00:05:48.000 I think personally, me today, if I was not in a relationship today, I could not have a stay at home woman.
00:05:57.000 It's not like for me who I am at 40 and what I got going on, just coming home and just seeing somebody just sitting on the couch every day, just sitting there, just chilling like that wouldn't float for me, you know.
00:06:10.000 So, like, you know, being where I am today, knowing, you know, how she is, you know, she's home with Zuri sometimes.
00:06:18.000 Boom, I come home, she's not there, she's at work.
00:06:20.000 Boom, she may be on the road with Bryce, you know, at college, she's doing all these things.
00:06:24.000 I think that's what I think is just who you are and where you are, you know, at that point in your life, what kind of moves you.
00:06:30.000 And I think everybody is different.
00:06:32.000 So, I mean, I'm just confused at his perception that stay at home wives basically do nothing all day.
00:06:42.000 Like, that is not true.
00:06:44.000 That is not true at all.
00:06:46.000 Fatherhood changes everything.
00:06:47.000 Whether it happened exactly when you planned it or not, most dads remember that moment when the reality finally set in.
00:06:52.000 Somebody depends on you now.
00:06:53.000 It's exciting, it can also be terrifying.
00:06:56.000 Again, when you realize you're going to be a dad, it just changes your life forever.
00:07:00.000 You become a different dad.
00:07:01.000 Human.
00:07:01.000 So, this is why John's story resonates with a lot of people.
00:07:03.000 When he found out he was going to be a dad, he wasn't sure he was ready.
00:07:06.000 He and his partner connected with preborn.
00:07:08.000 They received support.
00:07:09.000 They saw their baby through a free ultrasound.
00:07:11.000 John said that that was the moment everything changed for him, the moment he realized we can do this.
00:07:15.000 This Father's Day, you can help create that moment for another family.
00:07:18.000 For just $28, you can sponsor an ultrasound through preborn.
00:07:21.000 To donate, dial pound 250, say baby.
00:07:24.000 That's pound 250, baby, or visit preborn.comslash Shapiro.
00:07:28.000 Again, there are a lot of women who are considering what to do about their unborn child and their life changes because Of the support they receive through preborn, including that ultrasound. 0.99
00:07:38.000 Ultrasounds are just technological magic.
00:07:39.000 It's incredible.
00:07:40.000 You meet your baby long before it's born.
00:07:42.000 Let women, let men do that today. 0.71
00:07:45.000 Donate by dialing pound two fifty and saying keyword baby or visit preborn.com slash Shapiro. 1.00
00:07:50.000 So, my wife, the doctor, she took off time after the last baby.
00:07:54.000 And I assume that she'll take time off after this baby, which means that she'll probably have a several year consecutive not being in the workforce pattern here.
00:08:03.000 And you know what?
00:08:04.000 Not only is that her choice, I think it's been a very good choice for the kids.
00:08:07.000 I think it's been great for the kids to know that mommy is always there and that mommy takes care of the issues and that mommy is always there to organize the day and to teach them and to educate them and to make them better people.
00:08:20.000 The bizarre argument that it's sort of bad to have a stay at home wife, again, this is coming from a person whose wife is as well educated as any woman in America, and who I'm sure will at some point want to go back into the workforce.
00:08:32.000 But the notion that somehow it is bad to have a stay at home wife is a bizarre take.
00:08:36.000 It's a bizarre take from LeBron James.
00:08:40.000 It turns out that it's actually quite important for a woman to be in the home. 0.96
00:08:45.000 It is why the vast majority of women, when given the choice, actually like a part time life. 1.00
00:08:51.000 In other words, they like to drop the kids off at school, go to work, and then come home before the kids get home from school. 1.00
00:08:55.000 If they could opt for it, this is the life that polls show the vast majority of women would seek. 0.98
00:09:01.000 One of the problems with our society more generally is the fact that we have made that non normal. 0.88
00:09:10.000 Now, that again is a problem of choices.
00:09:12.000 That is not a problem of the economy per se, that is a problem of choices.
00:09:16.000 Some people like to portray that as an economic issue that, you know, we need to construct an economy whereby a woman can stay at home and The family can survive on a single parent income.
00:09:27.000 The reality is that economically speaking, the sort of bizarre time in American history was the 1950s.
00:09:33.000 And that was because the rest of the world was destroyed.
00:09:36.000 Before that, if you go back to, say, 1900, half of the American economy was agriculture. 0.53
00:09:41.000 The stay at home mom was still work. 0.92
00:09:42.000 Again, it is work to take care of kids, it is work to take care of the home, it is work to organize lives and educate children. 0.91
00:09:50.000 These are all things that are work.
00:09:52.000 They are not compensated work in the same way, but you actually can put an economic value on these things because.
00:09:58.000 You know, for example, if mom is working and dad is working, usually you have to hire a nanny.
00:10:02.000 Usually you have to hire somebody to clean.
00:10:04.000 Usually you have to hire somebody to babysit.
00:10:07.000 Usually you have to hire tutors, right?
00:10:09.000 All of these things have economic value.
00:10:12.000 Now, it shouldn't be measured in economic value because the true value of staying at home is non-economic in nature.
00:10:17.000 Obviously, spending time with your kids, you could put an economic, you can put a price on anything, literally anything, but because all prices are, are a system of evaluating trade-offs in terms of time.
00:10:27.000 With that said, is it more important that mommy be there for the kids?
00:10:32.000 Then that mommy worked a few more billable hours?
00:10:33.000 Of course, the answer on a sort of raw moral level is yes.
00:10:38.000 And so, the sort of bizarre notion that a woman is only truly, fully herself when she is working a lot outside the home, and that LeBron is putting forward here, that is a misnomer.
00:10:48.000 It is just wrong.
00:10:49.000 What an amazing video you just watched.
00:10:51.000 Wasn't that amazing?
00:10:52.000 Well, you know, if you think so, head on over to dailywire.comslash subscribe to watch the full show ad free or check out this crazy story here.