This is a serious problem in Hungary. Orbán has introduced a similar program called CSOK in 2015. It was sold with the usual rightist demagogue rhetoric about "family and home". The system allows people who promise to have a child to take up a 15 million HUF (about 41k USD) loan with extremely favorable conditions. If you promise 2 children you get 30 million, for 3 you get 50, and the government pays 10 million of your loan for each "extra" child eg. you promise 2 children, take up a loan for 30 million, and when your second child is born, the government pays you 10 mil.
It lead to an insane price hike on the housing market, prices have increased 3x in the past 10 years. There are many children born to irresponsible and useless parents who only wanted money. Entire generations of children who were not wanted.
Also notice how I said you only have to make a promise to make children. You dont have to have them already, a couple can have 0 children, sign up for the 30 million loan by promising 2 children. What happens if they break up? If they can't conceive? They have to pay back the loan in full after a time period.
Of course every time this deadline comes up, Orbán gracefully "extends" it, or changes it in some ways so that the irresponsible people don't have to cough up the money. They get added to all kinds of different taxes on banks, telecoms, multinational companies. I'm far from defending them, they are also terrible, but also all these extra costs just gets forwarded to the consumers.
It's a perfect way to enslave a ton of the irresponsible people. Orbán can keep moving this deadline and threaten the masses with "if I ever get voted out, you will have to pay all of that back".
I understand that this is only partially on Orbán, and mostly on all the people taking out these loans without thinking, but the average person is dumb as fuck. Shrewd politicians will always find a way to control them. I wish we had better education so people would plan a bit further ahead and not gamble on their unborn children.
Australia introduced a baby bonus in 2004. Ever since, there has been discussion regarding abuse of the system and parents having children for short term cash without thinking about the long-term investment. This is especially prudent in lower socio-economic areas.
I know of teachers who blame the baby bonus scheme for a rise in disruptive students within the last few years.
This isn't a topic I'm well versed in, but I do think consideration needs to be made. There is potential for abuse.
I'm not even from the US, which is a more expensive country by all accounts, and that sum is still laughable from my point of view. What's that gonna get you? A few months worth of clothes and basic supplies?
Some quick googling reveals that it costs around $300k to raise a child to the age of 17 in the US, not including lost income. When people were mostly farmers, having children used to advantageous economically. Now it's the opposite.
From a pure economic incentives perspective, I don't think that wealthy countries will solve their birth rate issues until parents are financially on par with or even ahead of childfree people.
It's hard to see how this could be done without heavy transfer payments/subsidies or restricting careers/promotions based on family size. These will of course generate all sorts of adverse side effects.
As a result, the general solution is to use immigration to blunt labor shortages and hope that natural selection will eventually favor natalist psychologies/cultures. This too has a lot of negative side effects.
This is a serious problem in Hungary. Orbán has introduced a similar program called CSOK in 2015. It was sold with the usual rightist demagogue rhetoric about "family and home". The system allows people who promise to have a child to take up a 15 million HUF (about 41k USD) loan with extremely favorable conditions. If you promise 2 children you get 30 million, for 3 you get 50, and the government pays 10 million of your loan for each "extra" child eg. you promise 2 children, take up a loan for 30 million, and when your second child is born, the government pays you 10 mil.
It lead to an insane price hike on the housing market, prices have increased 3x in the past 10 years. There are many children born to irresponsible and useless parents who only wanted money. Entire generations of children who were not wanted.
Also notice how I said you only have to make a promise to make children. You dont have to have them already, a couple can have 0 children, sign up for the 30 million loan by promising 2 children. What happens if they break up? If they can't conceive? They have to pay back the loan in full after a time period.
Of course every time this deadline comes up, Orbán gracefully "extends" it, or changes it in some ways so that the irresponsible people don't have to cough up the money. They get added to all kinds of different taxes on banks, telecoms, multinational companies. I'm far from defending them, they are also terrible, but also all these extra costs just gets forwarded to the consumers.
It's a perfect way to enslave a ton of the irresponsible people. Orbán can keep moving this deadline and threaten the masses with "if I ever get voted out, you will have to pay all of that back".
I understand that this is only partially on Orbán, and mostly on all the people taking out these loans without thinking, but the average person is dumb as fuck. Shrewd politicians will always find a way to control them. I wish we had better education so people would plan a bit further ahead and not gamble on their unborn children.
Australia introduced a baby bonus in 2004. Ever since, there has been discussion regarding abuse of the system and parents having children for short term cash without thinking about the long-term investment. This is especially prudent in lower socio-economic areas.
I know of teachers who blame the baby bonus scheme for a rise in disruptive students within the last few years.
This isn't a topic I'm well versed in, but I do think consideration needs to be made. There is potential for abuse.
I'm not even from the US, which is a more expensive country by all accounts, and that sum is still laughable from my point of view. What's that gonna get you? A few months worth of clothes and basic supplies?
Some quick googling reveals that it costs around $300k to raise a child to the age of 17 in the US, not including lost income. When people were mostly farmers, having children used to advantageous economically. Now it's the opposite.
Surely a rich country can do better.
From a pure economic incentives perspective, I don't think that wealthy countries will solve their birth rate issues until parents are financially on par with or even ahead of childfree people.
It's hard to see how this could be done without heavy transfer payments/subsidies or restricting careers/promotions based on family size. These will of course generate all sorts of adverse side effects.
As a result, the general solution is to use immigration to blunt labor shortages and hope that natural selection will eventually favor natalist psychologies/cultures. This too has a lot of negative side effects.