The technocratic elite (often socialists and democratic Marxists) frequently say we need more social benefits to encourage families. The problem is – it’s been done and it hasn’t worked.
Denmark has among the grandest social benefits programs in the world, when it comes to child raising. Yet their fertility rate is less than the U.S. after years of program spending. This is true everywhere.
Seoul’s efforts are not unusual. Developed economies are offering increasing amounts in subsidies to encourage citizens to have more children. But there is little evidence that they are having an effect: fertility rates are falling rapidly across the rich world.
“Pronatalist policies haven’t really been shown to consistently change fertility levels,” said Bernice Kuang, a demographer at the University of Southampton, in the UK.
Source: Baby bust: Can policymakers boost dwindling world fertility rates? | Financial Times
Families in the U.S. do not want to have children – their desired number of children is below the replacement level. This is also true in huge population countries like China, and soon to be true in India as well.
This chart, from the FT article, has cherry picked some nations – there are almost 200 nations in the world. Only a few (those on the bottom of this chart) have out of control fertility rates. However, everywhere that women’s education has increased, the fertility rates have dropped rapidly – and some demographers, while forecasting large population increases in those countries also say these high birth rates may come to a halt sooner than expected.
[…] Demographics: Can policies encourage larger families? No. […]