White House proposes giving out $5,000 checks to address falling birthrates amid growing ‘pronatalist’ movement
One of Donald Trump’s priorities for his second term is getting Americans to have more babies – and the White House has a new proposal to encourage them to do so: a $5,000 “baby bonus”.
The plan to give cash payments to mothers after delivery shows the growing influence of the “pronatalist” movement in the US, which, citing falling US birthrates, calls for “traditional” family values and for women – particularly white women – to have more children.
But experts say $5,000 checks won’t lead to a baby boom. Between unaffordable health care, soaring housing costs, inaccessible childcare and a lack of federal parental leave mandates, Americans face a swath of expensive hurdles that disincentivize them from having large families – or families at all – and that will require a much larger government investment to overcome.
Down the drain but they are much lower in countries like Germany, Italy, and South Korea where there’s massive Hausfrau + Breadwinner cultural expectations. Wealth and autonomy decreases birthrates - letting women have careers and children gives you less of a decrease.
Reduction in birthrate is a problem when you decide that infinitely growing the human population is how you get prosperity. If you think the birthrate should be 4 so there’s always a lot more young people than pensioners.
Even with a birthrate lower than replacement it will take a very long time to significantly reduce any country’s population.
1.46 in Germany
1.24 in Italy
1.32 in Finland
1.52 in Sweden
1.41 in Norway
1.55 in Denmark
1.38 in Quebec
So no, it’s not much higher than Italy or Germany, Korea and Japan are special cases though.
Jesus Christ, exclude Italy as well while you’re at it
PS You forgot Iceland.
Sorry, I thought Japan was at the same level as Korea but it’s actually much higher.
So yeah, Korea is a special case.
Iceland is at 1.59