It won’t appear as an additional tax or fee on a receipt, but if you’re single in the U.S., you’re paying more than your married peers. That’s because policies and programs, from Social Security to the tax code, were written when it was assumed that Americans would get and stay married. Today, we’ll hear from journalist Anne Helen Petersen about how your relationship status can dictate your economic outlook and whether policies are likely to change with the changing population. Plus: Consumer confidence creeps up despite omicron, a historically Black college gives students a generous gift with no strings attached, and how hard-to-find COVID tests illustrate the challenges of relying on a private industry during a public health crisis.