The low birth rate is a hot political topic at the moment. And with good reason.
Because only 1.5 children are born per woman in Denmark, and we must hit the magic number of 2.1 children per woman before we as a society can reproduce ourselves.
It can have serious consequences for our welfare society when there are not enough citizens to either work or pay taxes. For some, it is obviously also the idea of a smaller Danish people that feels scary.
If we look globally, the low birth rate is a trend throughout the West. And it can of course change the power relations over time if our part of the world becomes significantly smaller measured by the number of inhabitants.
The chairman of the Moderates, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, had a clear appeal to the Danes at the party’s annual meeting:
– We are going to have a few more children, it said.
Fortunately, it was said with a twinkle in the eye, because it is borderline-crossing when authorities and politicians wade directly into the bedroom like that. Of concrete proposals, the Moderates bring a proposal for a treatment guarantee for fertility treatment to the table – and have thoughts of looking abroad to recruit labour.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) already addressed the area of fertility in her New Year’s speech, where she announced that the government had promised free fertility treatment for child number two.
Although Mette Frederiksen did not refer to the low birth rate in her New Year’s speech, it is a no brainer that we must of course offer all the help we can to those who want children, but for various reasons cannot have them. Human as well as societal.
The Danish People’s Party has recently launched its bid for a solution to get Danes to have more children. The party proposes a new tax deduction for parents, which is triggered by the birth of the third child. A parent couple with three children will get a total tax deduction of DKK 180,000 annually.
But it is utopia to think that a tax advantage should mean that you would have to change your mind regarding not wanting to have children in order to have three of this kind.
Because there is more at stake than declining fertility.
Politiken has recently described that many Danes do not want to have children – at all.
Among women born from 1971 to 1990, between four and six percent would rather not have children at all. The same applies to nine percent of women born between 1999 and 2003.
In the solutions mentioned, the focus has been on health and the economy. But demographics, social conditions, climate change, the layout of the labor market and conditions in schools and institutions can also play a role.
If you want to take the low birth rate seriously from a political point of view, then you need to dive curiously and openly into the declining desire to give birth to children. Perhaps there are places here where it actually makes sense to get involved politically.
Because one should refrain from the temptation to interfere with people’s free choices. You have every right not to have children if you don’t feel like it, and in any case it is not the welfare state and the fatherland that should be decisive.
2024-03-31 06:16:18
#children #politicians #understand #admonitions #tax #cuts #change
