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> By and large, the nations with more childcare support, more protections for pregnant women, etc have lower birthrates than those that don't.

That's because they also have more public poverty and old-age support; which reduce the incentive for large families as old age and disability “insurance”.

Which on its own is a good thing, but if you want to encourage births anyway, your public support for parenting has to offset the effect that has on incentives to have children, which is a very bif effect. Nations don't do that because they don't think its an important-enough public need to warrant that approach.




Correct. More elderly welfare programs discourage family formation. Anytime I mention this, people think I'm nuts, but you seem to have come to the conclusion on your own.


I imagine I am not the only one who would rather suicide rather than becoming dependent on others. I certainly do not want my kids to spend their time looking after me if I am chronically unable to take care of myself.


And this gets to the core of the nihilistic social rot at the core of so much wrong in society today.

We hesitate at being dependent on others or having others help us. In the us, no matter your political side, the idea of finding meaning only through service to others is not only in short supply it's actively demonized.




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