Like It Is

After decades of family friendly policies, particularly policies to promote childbearing and large families, France has overtaken Ireland as the European nation with the highest breeding rate birthrate. The Times Online reports that more babies were born in France in 2006 than in any year since 1981, almost meeting the 2.07 children level per woman said to be required to replenish generations. The European average is 1.52 children per woman. Britain’s is 1.8 children.

Officials have hailed the high birth rate as confirmation that the expensive schemes to encourage couples to produce more children while also remaining in the workforce have succeeded. French women now give birth at an average age of 30 and, interestingly half the children are born outside marriage. The French workforce is almost 50% women and most don’t have to resort to part-time work. So how do they do it?

Mostly with the help of expensive schemes designed to encourage breeding sorry childbearing; including allowances, free daycare, universal nursery schooling, reduced price transport and generous tax reductions.

Needless to say the French pay high income taxes, so if you’re not a breeder, nor inclined to be one, you’re likely to be the loser by and large.You still pay the high taxes, but get none of the perks. (And before someone chirps up with “well these kids will pay your pension,” If I’ve paid into a pension all my life and paid tax all my working life I expect whatever benefits that produces).

This report also makes me think that if you are childfree in France, you face an even lonelier battle, surrounded or even cajoled, as it were, with every incentive to have kids and to continue having kids. And the payments are very generous, no question. So being childfree is probably even more of an oddity here than elsewhere. And let’s not forget that France is a Catholic country.

I remember back in the early nineties when I travelled fairly regularly to Paris to see a good friend of mine, remarking on just how generous their tax breaks were. Her sister had four kids and I know that for every child, she was paid a pretty decent amount to stay at home and look after it.

In 2005, the pay-out for a woman to stay at home and look after a third child was raised to 750 euros (about $900 Canadian and roughly $1,000 US). That’s some incentive. And with free daycare, there is certainly less chance of spending all your earnings on childminders.

And in the upcoming presidential elections motherhood and women’s rights are going to be at the forefront of the political agenda – for both candidates. I wonder if that includes a woman’s right not to breed and to exercise her choice to not have children if she doesn’t want them.

Of course, the reason for the joy at the polices is evident. Herve Lebras a demographer puts it succinctly

“it will take two decades for the babies of 2006 to start working and paying taxes.”

Still, at least now France’s aging baby boomers can quit worrying, and breathe a collective sigh of relief – unlike their counterparts in Britain and Germany who are still by and large ruminating about how to coax women into breeding more kids. If they consider adopting the French model, the tax increase will be considerable.

France’s aging boomers can relax – thanks to the rising birthrate their retirement pensions and healthcare will be financed by the worker bees kids coming behind them. Looks like everything must be done to preserve the status quo.

It will be very interesting to see if people who decide not to have kids react at all to the heavy emphasis on those that do, or whether their voices will simply be drowned out.

Original story courtesy The Times Online