Policy
The mysterious “they” says that children are a blessing, children are the future, and that there is no greater act of love than raising a child. As a mother of two, I can tell you that all of these metaphors are true, and more.
In addition to all those lovely things, having children is stressful, soul-straining, and financially difficult, if not impossible, in many situations. With increasing opportunities for women in the workplace and a shift in the value of determining when and how large a family should be, the question of our collective future may be teetering on the brink of nonexistence.
That's right, if we don't start having more children, the United States could be on the fast track to ruin with a nation populated mostly by older people and, it seems, immigrants. However, one controversial European leader believes he has the solution to the declining population problem facing many Western and First World countries.
Catch baby fever
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán receives a fair amount of scrutiny for allegedly being too right-wing and too nationalistic. But one cannot deny that Prime Minister Orban is a family man.
Under Mr. Orbán's leadership, Hungary has allocated nearly 5% of its national GDP to boosting Hungary's birth rate. Instead of creating government social welfare programs that stimulate broken families, Hungary has implemented a large number of government programs aimed at encouraging not only having children, but also marriage.
In Hungary, women who have four or more children receive a tax exemption for life, and women who become mothers before the age of 30 are exempt from paying personal income tax for life. Hungarian couples get an advance loan of $36,000, which is completely written off when they have three children.
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Couples who marry before the bride's 41st birthday receive a loan of $33,000. These are some game-changing dollar amounts for any individual, let alone a family.
So, what is Hungary so demanding of its population to increase their reproductive activities?
Global crisis
The world as a whole is reproducing at a slower rate than in previous generations, and many countries face the risk of potential cultural extinction. In the United States, the birth rate has declined steadily by about 23% from 2007 to 2022.
The typical American woman gives birth to 1.6 children, a decline from the 1950s average of 3 children per typical American woman. Because the “replacement rate” is 2.1 children per woman, this will turn into second- and third-order impact problems.
The declining birth rate in the United States and around the world is expected to cause major problems for aging populations. Without a sufficient “replacement” generation to enter the labor market as the older generation retires, a labor shortage is imminent, as Hungary and many other European countries face.
Given the labor shortage, it is easy to see the next problem for governments and the aging generation: fewer workers to pay for government programs aimed at caring for the elderly. What kind of repercussions could this have for us in middle age?
Perhaps raising the retirement age, increasing taxes, or some government program is no longer sustainable at all when our children are in their twilight years. It is not only Hungary that is seriously considering stimulating child birth.
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France, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Denmark are all trying similar measures to encourage more loving populations to conserve theirs. Prime Minister Orbán warns that what the United States and other Western countries are doing to try to curb labor shortages and population decline is the wrong path, saying in 2019:
“For the West, the answer is immigration. For every missing child one child should come and then the numbers will be good. But we don’t need numbers. We need Hungarian children.”
Is it time to seriously consider the declining birth rate in the United States as a real existential crisis? Do we need more American children?
Do it for your country
Prolific prolific Elon Musk has expressed the world's need to have more children for years, warning that population decline may be right there with artificial intelligence when it comes to the end of civilization as we know it.
He once famously said:
“The collapse of the birth rate is the greatest danger civilization will ever face.”
The electric car maker even went so far as to write:
“Population collapse due to falling birth rates poses a far greater danger to civilization than global warming.”
With 11 children, it's clear that Elon is taking this crisis very seriously. It may not be his modern Teslas or his adventure in making humanity interplanetary, but his quest to settle the next generation that will save the planet.
At a recent political event in Rome, Elon Musk said:
“My advice to all government leaders and people is: Make sure you have children to create a new generation.”
“Demographics matter,” he went on to say, adding that in light of current dismal birth rates:
“…the culture of Italy, Japan and France will disappear.”
Holy blue! All kidding aside, the idea that the cultures that helped shape civilization as we know it might disappear is a depressing one.
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The question we should ask ourselves is why the left wing of the US political elite wants to discourage mothers from having children and nuclear families while encouraging an endless stream of illegal immigrants across the southern border. If I didn't have to pay taxes for the rest of my life if I had two more kids…I would think about it.
