Germany is facing the growing problem of an aging population with a birth rate estimated at 1.6 children per woman. To remedy this issue, the government has decided to bribe parents into having more children. It recently proposed a monthly subsidy of 100 euros per child who will be kept home until three years old.
In Germany, nurseries are sponsored by the government, which wanst to save money by having fewer toddlers for which to care. Already only one out of four German children attends these nurseries; only one-third of the population supports the new bill. Most Germans fear that the subsidy will only encourage recent immigrants not to send their toddlers to nursery, and prevent them from learning German by keeping them home. The Germans feel that those kids and their families would gain from mixing with other German kids and not “watch TV all day”. The people opposing this bill further point to its estimated cost of 1.2 billion euros and how it would hurt the job market to pay parents to stay home.
Most of the beneficiaries of this bill are already believed not to have a job and not to be paying taxes. The voters who elected the conservative government of Angela Merkel are refusing to be bribed by the very people they put in power.
Democrats at home should learn from it.
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