Germany is now paying new mothers up to $33,000 to give birth as a way of trying to increase the country’s low birth rate.

Parents of babies born on or after 1 January will be entitled to up to 25,200 euros (£16,911, $33,300) to ease the financial burden of parenthood.

But those born even a minute earlier will not be covered by the scheme.

The cash subsidies are part of a government initiative to boost Germany’s dwindling birth rate.

German women have an average of 1.37 children, well below the average of 2.1 needed to keep a population stable. One minister recently warned of “the lights going out”.

Under the current system of Elterngeld, parents receive a maximum of 7,200 euros (£4,831, $9,472) over two years.

But the parents of children born in 2007 will be granted over two thirds of their former salary for up to a year - up to 25,200 euros.

So the country steadily increases taxes (they supposedly have the most complex tax system in the world) and the accompanying social programs to the point where people can no longer afford to have children at a sustainable rate so the government - instead of reducing taxes - enlarges a costly entitlement program that will be financed out of the pockets of citizens.  Brilliant.

Something tells me that as they sweeten the offer more and more people will have children for the wrong reason - namely to get some free money.  How will these children be raised and what will be the impact on German society down the road?  I’m sure all the government there cares about is that there are going to be enough warm bodies toiling for a few decades to support the generous entitlement programs for the young, aged, infirmed, and lazy.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 7:13 am and is filed under Communism/Socialism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.