North Macedonia (Brussels Morning Newspaper), The Chinese leadership is worried: the population has been on the decline for two years in a row, signifying a seemingly inexorable plunge in birth rates to half the rate of 2016. Marriages are at an all-time low, and deaths are at an all-time high, as the population ages. China is also one of the most expensive places on earth to raise a child.
The same trends occur in the majority of the members of the European Union and even in Russia.
China’s one-child policy imposed, often cruelly, between 1980-2015 has been reversed. Now, couples can have up to 3 children. But it is way too late. Times have changed: nowadays, even an only child is considered a career-retarding nuisance the world over or, at best, a New Age exercise at luxurious self-actualization in one’s late 30s or early 40s.
Rearing a child is an exorbitant, sapping undertaking. Half of all offspring cohabit with their parents for decades. The sacrifices required in terms of professional advancement, savings, old-age security, and privacy are mind-boggling.
Children are also a marker of gender disparities, inequality, and equity. The onerous burden of reproduction and childcare falls disproportionately on the mother.
China has been doing its best recently, instituting new incentives for motherhood such as tax breaks, housing subsidies, and extended maternity leave.
Yet, the fact is that poor people have more children. The highest birth rates in the world are registered in Africa and parts of Asia with less than 1 US dollar a day in income. Birth rates decline as people become more educated and wealthier. The lowest birth rates in the world are in Germany, Scandinavia, and California. Even within rich polities, poor minorities have the most children per household.
People tend to rationalize their decision to not procreate by using economic excuses. The truth is that many of them simply put career, money-making, enjoying life, and seeing the world ahead of having children. It is a shift in social values and priorities, not a decision driven by harsh economic realities.
Not every problem can be solved by throwing money at it. Modern civilization is self-centered, individualistic, hedonistic, and narcissistic. People put themselves and their interests first.
Experience from countries such as Israel, France, Germany, and Scandinavia where childbirth and childrearing are heavily subsidized shows that government intervention is futile and a colossal waste of resources. In the medium to long term, it has zero (insignificant) statistical effect. In all these countries – even though these policies are still being implemented – population growth is flat to negative (except in Israel and France which have a lot of immigrants).
Instead of encouraging women to have more children, the government should make sure that current families and households are well catered to: workplace discrimination against pregnant women and women in childbirth ages should be outlawed and prosecuted; daycare centers should be opened and made available to young mothers; parenting classes and free medical care should be rendered accessible and affordable; a whole gamut of goods and services – from public transport to formula milk to textbooks should be made free to families with more than 4 children; maternity wards should be improved and modernized; new mothers should have preference in professional re-skilling and re-training.
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