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--:-- Host (John Bickley): This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): A recent poll from the Wall Street Journal shows a sizable shift in American values. Part of the story here is that it's sort of these important sources of social solidarity wither. Americans become more depressed, more anxious, and less happy. What categories change the most and what's causing the switch? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's April 1st, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Experts say they're seeing an unprecedented trend that's creating a dual housing market, a dramatic disparity between declining prices in the West and spiking prices in the East. When you go from 3% to 6.5% for a 30-year fixed rate loan, you end up with a lot of people just simply not being able to afford to buy a house. We have the details.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): And as the Senate votes to end the COVID state of emergency, public health officials are walking back much of their early pandemic advice. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): A new poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that Americans' values have changed dramatically in the last few years. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham joins us now to tell us more.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, things like patriotism and having families, those have been bedrock American values for generations. Are these things no longer important to us?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, not according to this poll. So the Wall Street Journal conducted this survey with a nonpartisan research group out of the University of Chicago. It found that since 1998, when the journal first started asking about these values, the percentage of Americans who say that patriotism is very important to them has gone from 70% to 38%. And those who say that religion is very important to them has gone from 62% to 39%. Things like showing tolerance took a 22-point drop as well, going from 80% to 58%. And then here's perhaps the most shocking finding of this poll. The percentage of Americans who say that having children is very important went from 59% in 1998 to only 30% today.
--:-- Megan Basham: The share of Americans who say that involvement in their community and hard work are very important values, well, that's also fallen. But the really noteworthy thing about all of this is that you see something of a gradual decline in these categories from 1998 to 2019. But then in the last three years they just take a nosedive. To give you one example 13 points of the decrease in valuing children came since 2019. And patriotism also dropped 23 points in just the last three years.
--:-- Megan Basham: So did the poll say what Americans do value now? Has anything gone up?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, there was one category that showed an increase and that was money. It was up 12 points. I talked to Brad Wilcox, professor of sociology at the University of Virginia and a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. And he said that while we should take the results of any single poll with a grain of salt, these findings do comport with evidence he's been seeing in his research. And he says it has really terrible implications for Americans' happiness. It's important to understand that faith and family are critical sources of meaning and happiness in American life. And so we've also kind of been seeing over the same timeframe, a market increase in the share of Americans saying that they're unhappy or they're not satisfied with their lives.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, were there any differences between demographic groups? There were. Older people were much more likely to say that these kind of tried and true values are very important to them, whereas only 23 percent of those under 30 highly valued patriotism. But seniors, 65 and up, that number was 59 percent. There was a similar age gap in religion. But one of the really stark findings was that only 23% of those under 30 value having children. There were also some disparities by political party. There is a kind of partisan divide when it comes to things like patriotism, religion, and family life, where Americans who are more likely to vote Republican are more likely to kind of place a premium on patriotism to understand and appreciate the value of faith in our common life, and also to kind of prioritize getting married and having kids.
--:-- Megan Basham: So there is kind of this residual, in a sense, commitment to our core institutions. But the numbers for valuing children and religion were still down considerably for Republicans as well. It just wasn't as much as for Democrats.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, do we have any sense of why these numbers dropped so dramatically since 2019?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, you know, obviously the enormous impact of the pandemic is still being felt everywhere. The economic instability it caused could be prompting people to value money more and feel like having children is just a riskier financial commitment now. It also closed houses of worship, as we know, so that could lead to valuing religion less. And other polls have shown less trust in our government institutions because of their handling of COVID. When you combine that with really some tremendous political division, that could be making people feel less patriotic.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Well, some pretty alarming trends there. Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): That was Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): After two years of record-breaking gains in the housing market, prices are finally beginning to fall, but only in one part of the country, the West Coast. This week, new data is showing a striking disparity between home prices on each side of the country. Here with more on what's driving the trend and where it's most noticeable is Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, first, it's important to get some context on the housing market more broadly. Remember, in the last few years, home prices in America have exploded. In 2020, the median existing home price stood at $295,000. Last month, it was $363,000. There's never been a point in American history when prices rose that quickly. Now over the last year or so as mortgage rates have shot up the expectation was that the real estate market would cool down and home prices would start to drop. And to a certain extent we have seen a dip in prices. Many cities saw 5 to 10 price drops over the last 12 months.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But when you look at a map of prices in each major city, you realize something pretty striking. Almost all of the cities with price increases are in the eastern half of the country, while all of the decreases are in the west. Okay, so just how much of a disparity are we talking about?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it is wild. If you take the 50 largest housing markets in the country, 37 of them are east of Colorado. Of those 37, all but one saw home prices increase over the last year. If you look at the 13 that are west of Colorado, all 13 dropped last year. It's like someone drew a line down the middle of the country and just sorted out all the cities on each side based on the direction their home prices were going.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And real estate experts say they've never seen anything like it. So there really is no precedent for this. And it's also worth noting, it goes beyond last year. Since 2020, Of the 10 real estate markets that have seen the biggest home price increases, the top nine are all in the East.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What's causing this? Well, part of the trend has to do with the remote work revolution. As people have been given the freedom to work from wherever, they've begun to prioritize places with a lower cost of living, which does explain why we've seen some of the largest price increases in the Southeast and Midwest, where home prices are typically more affordable.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But that only tells part of the story. Another part of this is the job market. More specifically, which cities are hiring? Look at the tech industry, for example. Since the 90s, the tech boom has contributed to long-term growth in housing markets in places like Oregon, Washington, and California. But as we talked about on the show, over the last year and a half, the tech industry has been hit harder than almost any other. And mass layoffs and falling profits have directly coincided with falling home prices in tech-heavy cities.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, San Francisco and San Jose each saw the largest drops of any cities. Both were above 10%, while Seattle was right behind at 7.5%. And meanwhile, cities that saw the highest increases were, not coincidentally, those still adding jobs, which mostly include cities in Florida and other southern markets. For example, the largest spike of all came in Miami, which was up 12% last year.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember, a number of large tech firms relocated there since 2021.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Yeah, that's right. Some of the biggest price cuts have come from California, specifically in the most expensive neighborhoods. What's driving that trend?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, John, if you're in the market for a $20 million mansion in Beverly Hills, now is the time to go for it. All right. because there is a good chance you can get a bargain, relatively speaking, of course. The reason is LA's new measure, ULA, also known as the mansion tax. The law will impose an extra 4% tax on property sales over $5 million and a 5.5% tax on sales above $10 million. And more importantly, these sellers are on the hook for that tax.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Supporters of the hike say that the proceeds will go towards affordable housing projects in the city and help foster what they call housing equity. Now, that measure goes into effect April 1st. So throughout the last few months, we've seen a massive and frenetic sell-off as wealthy homeowners try to get their mansions off their hands before the deadline.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, I bet. As a result, we've seen jaw-dropping price drops on some of the nicest properties in LA, the country for that matter. And some real estate brokerages have been offering a million-dollar bonus to any agent who can sell certain homes before April 1st. Sounds like a pretty good incentive.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But there are some critics of this law. Yeah, it's worth noting. Plenty of business leaders in the city say this law will actually make the housing crisis worse. Critics say that because the tax applies to all property sales, not just single family homes, real estate developers looking to build multifamily homes or commercial housing projects will have a much larger incentive to move those construction projects outside of the city limits to avoid the tax hikes. Obviously, that would further exacerbate the housing shortage and do little to help the homeless.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): Right, so it could really work in a self-defeating kind of manner there. That's what the critics say. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): That Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): The Senate voted to officially end the COVID state of emergency on Thursday. Three years after the emergency was first declared, many public health officials are reversing course on much of their early pandemic advice. A recent panel of health experts interviewed by the New York Times emphasized that the widespread use of chemical disinfectant initially promoted by the CDC could have done more harm than good. Daily Wire investigative reporter, Mairead Elordi is here with the details for us.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Hi, Georgia.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Right, so now, three years after the pandemic began, the New York Times interviewed a number of experts who were warning that using chemical household disinfectants too liberally might actually be a serious risk to your health. They're also saying they probably didn't do much to slow the spread of COVID.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: When COVID hit, people were afraid of the COVID virus sticking around on surfaces like counters, doorknobs, and even groceries. And many people used chemical household cleaners like 409 or Lysol sprays and Clorox wipes to clean those surfaces. And they weren't crazy. They were following advice from the CDC. In April 2020, the CDC was recommending people clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces at least once a day, even if they weren't leaving the house.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Now, what do we know about the health effects of exposure to some of these cleaning chemicals? Well, it depends on the disinfectant, but with a lot of products, repeated inhalation or skin contact can harm people's health over time. But we don't know the full long-term effects of chemical exposures because a lot of household chemicals haven't been studied rigorously over time.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: The most common disinfectants are quaternary ammonium compounds, or QACs, which usually have a chemical ending in ammonium chloride. These can cause skin irritation and lung problems, and over years, potentially asthma. The second most popular kind of disinfectants are chlorine-based, such as bleach and several types of acids like hydrogen peroxide. Many people know that bleach can damage skin and eyes, but people might not know it is also linked to asthma. Bleach also produces toxic gas when mixed with certain other cleaners.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: In 2020, a woman tragically died when she mixed a bleach-based cleaner with an acid-based cleaner. We should note the most serious effects of exposure to these household cleaners like cancer, asthma, and infertility take years of exposure to develop.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Another issue with chemical exposure, especially disinfectants, is its effect on the good bacteria in our guts called the microbiome. Some scientists now call the gut microbiome the second brain because of the profound effect it has on our physical and mental health. Ideally, you want a very diverse microbiome with a good balance of beneficial bacteria, and we get that from exposure to a wide range of bacteria in the environment and in our food.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: It seems counterintuitive, but exposure to dirty things like soil and manure actually have health benefits. A variety of studies have found that chemical cleaning agents, which can leach into our bodies, reduce the diversity of bacteria living on our skin and in our guts. For example, a Washington State University study from 2020 showed that toddlers with higher exposure to household chemicals had reduced microbiome diversity. Toddlers are particularly affected by household chemicals because they tend to touch surfaces and put things in their mouths.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: So what is the best way to clean if you want to minimize chemical exposure? Well, the experts the Times talked to now say to just clean using soap and water. They say they themselves rarely use these chemical disinfectants, and they recommended using the less damaging ones like hydrogen peroxide or citric acid.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): All right, well, Maraid, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): That was Daily Wire investigative reporter, Mairead Elordi.
--:-- Host (Georgia Howe): That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
