It’s summer so one of my usual dog-walking companions sometimes brings one of her three children along. On a recent day it was the 15-year-old daughter, a girl who has been carefully sheltered within a two-parent home or at a private school. The topic of her future career came up. The girl volunteered “Everyone knows that if you want to make money you marry and divorce a rich guy. That’s why my parents sent me to a school full of rich boys with low self-esteem. All that they need is an understanding wife. Then, oops, divorce after six months.” From whom had she learned this? “A bunch of the moms at our school made their money this way,” she responded. “[friend’s name]’s mom did it three times. And [other friend’s name]’s mom made money by having a baby without being married.”

After a little more conversation, we established that she overestimated the likely profit from a very short-term marriage and underestimated the profits from having children out of wedlock (Massachusetts offers unlimited child support revenue following a one-night encounter with a high-income resident or visitor). This was consistent with the survey of adults that we did in Harvard Square.

The inter-generational aspects are kind of interesting. The teenager’s mom is a fully trained attorney. The dad is an MBA who works in the financial services industry. They entered the workforce before the 1990s child support guidelines made it straightforward to calculate the potential profits from having children. The daughter is intelligent and healthy and will be the repository of more than $500,000 in education (K-12 plus college). Yet she recognizes that, compared to working with her college degree at a W-2 job, under today’s U.S. family law system, she can expect to earn far more cash through a thoughtful use of her body and her children.