Bloomberg reports Finland has a baby problem. While it is supposed to be the one place in the world which is most child-supportive, the birth rate has fallen far below the 2 per woman level needed for replacement. Supposedly nobody knows what to do about it.
I have an already tested idea. Why not make motherhood a decent career, a reasonable occupational choice? Pay mothers a per-child salary such that by raising, say, three or four children a woman could live independently and comfortably. It worked too well with welfare mothers in the U.S., might it not work in Finland?
In other words, if men don't want to marry and earn enough to support a stay-home wife and mother, they can support her through their taxes and accomplish the same thing. What it requires is for the society to decide it is truly serious about the problem, which I don't believe they yet are.
Why not? Low birth rate is a problem which is "out there" while taxes are a "now" issue.
