Trump administration Explore the means to reverse the birth rate down America by offering incentives to larger families, potentially including a “baby bonus” for $ 5,000 for new mothers.
It is according to A report published Monday by the New York Times, saying that the American president Donald Trump seeks to address the drop in the country’s birth rate; It comes after recently nicknamed “Chairman of fertilization. “”
An idea envisaged by the White House includes the reservation of scholarships for married candidates or parents, reported the Times. Another would pay a baby bonus to new mothers, and a third party would finance menstrual education to help women better follow fertility, according to the article.
On Tuesday, when journalists asked questions about the report on the White House plans to give parents bonuses to have a child, Trump supported the idea.
“It seems to me a good idea,” said Trump.
What is the low American birth rate rates?
The American birth rate has dropped regularly for decades.
In 1990, the average American woman had around 2.1 children – the level necessary to maintain the stable population. By 2023, this number had fallen to 1.62, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This trend is not limited to the United States – countries like South Korea, Italy, Japan, Spain, France and Canada are faced with similar declines in birth rate.
In 2023, Canada fertility rate According to Statistics Canada, with a entirely entirely 1.26 child per female calendar, cement of her Canadian statistical statist.
“This is a global challenge. Even the high reproductive places are falling, “said Arthur Caplan, head of the Nyu Grossman School of Medicine medical ethics division in New York.
“And it seems that many places now think:” Well, we don’t have enough children, we have no children to take care of the elderly and we do not have enough tax base “”, he said.
How do countries try to fight weak births?
Studies have shown that fertility rates fall worldwide for several reasons, in particular, Women delaying procreation To continue education and careers, the high cost of housing and children’s educationbetter access to Family contraception and planning and move social standards Around the size of the family.
Caplan maintains that low fertility also follows from a vision of the future – concerns about the economy, cultural instability, food security and climate change all play a role.
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In response to the drop in birth rate, some countries have started to be creative to encourage more babies.
For example, Tokyo is in the process of Deposit of a four -day work week In an attempt to improve the balance between professional and private life and to tackle the Record Fertility rate of Japan.
Hong Kong, with one of the lowest birth rate in the worldOffer to parents A newborn bonus $ 20,000 HK (around $ 3,580 CAD), as well as a monthly children’s allowance.
In 2019, Hungary has introduced a loan Out of around 30,000 euros for newlyweds. If they have three children, the loan is forgiven.
And now the United States may envisage similar cash incentives.
However, Caplan warns that these incentives can transport darker connotations. He maintains that when political decision -makers supervise the decline in fertility as a crisis that deserves to be repaired with money, they often reveal deeper anxieties on race and ethnicity, not only the size of the population.
“If you really worry about babies,” he said, “it would be difficult to justify policies that export children or young immigrants to the rates we see today.”
A study in 2023 in World Health and Medicine Argued that policies strengthening family life, such as paid parental holidays, quality child care and flexible work arrangements, help increase birth rate rates by facilitating work and children.
On the other hand, argued the study, unique “baby bonuses” or small cash transfers only trigger short increases.
Since they barely cover the real costs of parenting, these payments tend to move the moment of births rather than increasing the total number of children that couples have, the researchers said.
“This idea of a baby bonus, giving someone $ 5,000, is ridiculous, it will not change the behavior at all,” said Caplan. “And we know that because many countries have tried it – Taiwan, Italy, Japan – but that did not work. No one has children with a little baby bonus. ”
He underlines that the education of a child can be very expensive – around $ 293,000 birth CAD at the age of 17 in Canada, according to Statistics Canada, and around $ 237,482 USD from birth to 18 years in the United States, compared to 2023.
“With this baby-boom idea, they did not mention the affordable daycare, work flexibility, home work, parental leave, the best salary,” he said.
The granting of procreation is not new – many developed countries already offer advantages such as prolonged parental leave. Canada offers up to 18 months of paid leave and subsidized daycare access, while Sweden and Norway also have generous leave programs.
However, despite these supports, fertility rates continue to drop.
Caplan maintains that it is not surprising: there is no unique solution.
“If you really want to stimulate fertility,” he says, “you have to convince people that tomorrow will be better than today.”
“But even then, procreation decisions in the past have been shaped in agriculture times, larger families and higher infant mortality conditions – conditions that simply do not apply more. We may never see the sizes of such large families again.”