[ng12]

It always shocks me that the first proposed solution is to import young people from somewhere else rather than encourage existing citizens to have kids.

Actually... I take that back. It's not shocking at all. Immigrants are free and subsidizing childcare is expensive.

[Overtonwindow]

From an American perspective, I have always thought of it in terms of votes. Those are future voters, especially for the party that encourage them to immigrate.

[rich_sasha]

It’s also the delay loop. If today I magically encourage people to have children, it’s 19 years until they hit 18, and probably another 5 until they are on average net productive. Also change doesn’t happen that quickly, so really a concerted effort today will maybe pay off in 25 years time.

[ng12]

Fair enough, but a sensible thing would be to do both.

[maxdesalle]

Fully agree with you.

But unfortunately, it takes a whole generation before childcare measures pay off.