5 ms·

More importantly, the countries with high birth rates do not have enough human capital to replace aging Westerners. Their kids aren't equipped to take the mill

• bushbaba 4y ago
  Israel has a higher than replacement birth-rate and has western-ish ideals. If the US cared to increase births it could simply issue free daycare, or increase the child tax deduction.
  • lr4444lr 4y ago
    That needs to be disaggregated. Israel has a huge religious contingent, and a substantial segment of it is supported by wholesale welfare - not just child care and rebates. If subsidized early years child care were enough, you'd expect the Nordic countries with their amazing social safety net to have a population boom. They don't. There's something more subtle going on with the cultural attitudes about women as homemakers.
  • hnuser847 4y ago
    > free daycare France has free daycare and yet has had a below-replacement level birth rate since the late 70s.
• jmopp 4y ago
  Many countries in Africa have English or French as their official languages. In South Africa, the number of native English speakers has increased at a faster rate than would be expected given the country's ethnic breakdown. We're likely to see the same thing happen in the rest of Africa: People will speak English or French to their children because being a native speaker of those languages would be an easy way to give your child an advantage.