How governments try to fix dropping birth rates - and why they fail
Worldwide birth rates keep going down while officials try different ways to fix it. From free nursery hours to tax breaks governments make moves that dont really work - heres why
Birth rates in developed countries keep dropping which makes governments super-worried. From UK to Japan people dont rush to have kids - they focus on careers save money or just enjoy their child-free life
The reasons are multi-layered: housing costs are sky-high child-care is expensive (which makes having kids a real budget-buster) and many young folks prefer living solo till their mid-30s. Plus theres this whole thing with declining fertility rates due to environmental factors
Different countries try various tricks to fix this:
- UK offers free nursery time for babies over 9 months
- Viktor Orbanʼs Hungary cancels income tax for parents with 3+ kids
- France gives cash bonuses to big families
- China makes weird phone calls to check if women are pregnant
Your child is almost two now. Isnt it about time to start thinking about another?
The most odd approach comes from China where local workers call women to ask about their baby-making plans; offering free vitamins as motivation (which is kinda funny-sad)
The real issue here is that governments dont get it - people have different life-plans nowadays. Sure some still want multiple kids but they start way later than their parents did. The only non-creepy thing officials should do is make child-care cheaper; everything else is just too much nose-poking into peoples private stuff
