Trump’s New Birth Rate Plan: Menstrual Education?
The way Americans talk about government efforts to boost birth rates is always odd. Since conservatives want more people to get married and have children, those opposed to conservatives often declare this an unworthy and nefarious goal. But encouraging marriage and parenthood, per se, isn’t the issue. The real problem here is that pronatalist policies, as traditionally understood, just don’t work.
Around the world, we’ve seen pronatalist policies fail. Even those that “succeed”—loosely speaking—tend to only shift the timing of births, not the total number.
And that’s what we need more people to keep in mind as the Trump administration explores new pronatalist policies.
Ideas the administration is reportedly considering include giving women a $5,000 “baby bonus” after each birth and reserving 30 percent of prestigious Fulbright scholarships for people who are married or have children.
These are things that would reward people for being married or having children, sure. But they are not the kinds of things that will move the needle on fertility rates. Even if slightly improved chances at winning a rare scholarship were enough to change childbearing decisions (a dubious idea), the number of people this could even possibly start to sway is vanishingly small.
And while I’m sure mothers may appreciate a check after childbirth, $5,000 isn’t even enough to cover the cost of hospital bills for the uninsured. Even for those with insurance, more than half of that money could be eaten up by labor and delivery costs, after which there are 18 more years (at least) of financial costs to consider. The idea that $5,000 would sway families to have children they otherwise wouldn’t have is absurd.
Common sense and rigorous research both come to the same conclusions here: Decisions surrounding children are highly personal, multifaceted, and not generally swayed by government propaganda or bribes. Raising children requires so much more than just money or pats on the back. And it requires giving up a lot, too—there’s an opportunity cost in having a child, or having more of them.
That doesn’t mean that having children is not worth the cost, for many people. Just the same, many people will not find the necessary trade-offs to be palatable. Besides, even many people who are open to marrying and having children only want to do so under the right circumstances—typically, in a partnership with someone they love, trust
Article from Reason.com
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