[idlehand]

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 millions of vacant Western jobs, because they won't have the necessary education, especially when it comes to language.

[bushbaba]

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]

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]

> free daycare

France has free daycare and yet has had a below-replacement level birth rate since the late 70s.

[jmopp]

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.