Introduction
There has been a consistent decline in population in most of some of the developed countries over the past three decades. In the past, there was a general belief that the solution to higher standards of living in a country would be to reduce birth rates. This strategy worked, but countries have come to realize that this move has its consequences.
It is a fact that smaller families are easy to manage, but the problem comes when the population of a country drops significantly. For instance, German, and many other developed nations in Europe have been experiencing a sluggish growth of population. Some have been experiencing a decline in the population. According to Caselli (67), a declining population may have negative consequences for the government.
This is so because, with the reduced population, there will be a reduced workforce within the nation. The market for various companies will also drop, making the country unattractive to investors. Although the reduced population will have a higher purchasing power per family, the total purchasing power of the country will drop.
The revenues for the government will also be reduced because of the reduced number of people who pay tax. For this reason, many governments in the developed countries have been keen to control the significant decline of the population.
According to Weiner (113), scholars and other technocrats have proposed various ways of increasing the population of a country. The United States has maintained a high population increase over the years because of a higher rate of immigration as compared to the rate of emigration. This approach may be good because most of the immigrants have the technical knowledge and therefore, can apply their skills in various sectors.
However, some governments have been critical of this approach, especially because such immigrants would repatriate part of their income back to their home countries.
This would have negative consequences to a country’s economy. For this reason, many economists have proposed the idea of increasing the birth rate as the best approach to increasing a country’s population. This paper seeks to investigate if it is appropriate for the government to encourage couples to have more children as a way of increasing its population.
Discussion
Population increase is becoming relevant in some countries around the world. With the technological advancement and improved economic conditions of the third world countries, the need to immigrate to other developed countries have declined. This means that some of the countries that relied on the emigrants as their main workforce have realized that they must find alternative of increasing their population.
In this study, it would be interesting to determine the appropriateness of the government to encourage couples to have more children as a strategy of increasing the country’s population. The research seeks to find a solution to the question below.
Should the government encourage couples to have more children with a reduction in the population rate?
To find a response, it would be appropriate to determine some of the factors that may make couples reject or accept this proposal. It would also be important to understand the appropriateness of the strategy on the side of the government, and what it can do to convince couples to have more children
Factors that may encourage couples to have more children
Some families have always preferred having a smaller number of families. There are several reasons that have encouraged some couples to have smaller families. In some instances, couples have larger families. It is necessary to determine some of the factors that would encourage families to have a higher number of children. One such factor is improved living standards.
Some couples are always concerned about the lifestyle their children would live if their number exceeds the income capacity of the parents to take care of them. When couples have decent jobs, and the future is assured, they will always feel comfortable having a higher number of children. This is because they will not have worries about the future of these children.
The education system and the role of the government in this system is another determinant to the number of children a couple would have. Every parent wants his or her children to go to decent schools to lead decent lives in the future. For this reason, they would always try to limit the number of children to a manageable size so that they may be able to take them to good schools.
In countries where the government takes the responsibility of educating children at various levels, couples would tend to have more children. According to Caselli (90), human being fears responsibilities, and every moment one is to face a given responsibility, he or she would try to avoid it, or limit its magnitude.
This means that when parents realize that it is their responsibility to take care of their children’s educational needs, they would always try to reduce the number of children they have. However, when they realize that the responsibility has been taken by the government, then they would have no problem having a higher population.
Another issue that can encourage couples to have more children is the life expectancy within the country. Ballou (83) notes that old people always like having large families to take care of them and keep them away from loneliness at this critical stage in life. When a couple is assured of long life, they will try to have a higher number of children as a way of securing their happiness in the future.
This means that a government can cite life expectancy as one of the reasons that should make couples have larger families. When the couple is convinced that they would need a large number in their old age, it becomes easy to convince them to increase their population.
Some of the negative factors that may motivate couples to have a higher number of children is a high child mortality rate. Some parents would have a higher number of children for fear that some of them may perish after some time. Although this is a factor that may motivate parents to have a higher number of children, it is a factor that may not be used by the government because it is a sign of failure of its medical systems.
When the government plans to increase the population of a country by encouraging couples to have more children, it would be important to understand these motivating factors. It would allow the government to determine the best approach of motivating these couples to have more children.
The appropriateness of the strategy to the government
According to Balas (688), this is the most appropriate strategy that a government can use to increase its population. This scholar notes that a drop in the population of a country may affect it in various ways. Encouraging other nationals into the country may be a good solution, but it is a short term solution, and the government must develop a long-lasting solution to such problems.
Russia, Japan, and Germany are some of the countries that have been experiencing a decline in population over the years. Such population decline comes with several challenges that the government will be forced to address at higher costs. According to Cox (617), most of the European firms are considering to relocate their processing plants to China, India, and Brazil.
This is so because these three countries have a large population, which means that labor is always available at cheap costs. However, such moves would always affect the economy of a country. It reduces the rate of employment within a country. It also reduces the income a government would have through taxing such firms if they were operating locally. There has also been the problem of outsourcing some of the government activities.
Instances, where a government or local firms are forced to hire technical forces from other countries, are common in some of the countries with a declining population. This means that the government must find a way of boosting its population to avoid depending on other countries population. The increasing birthrate is the most appropriate strategy that a government can use to solve this problem.
This is the only strategy that the government can be assured of as a means of increasing its population. The other strategy of encouraging immigrants into the country may not work, especially when the country is not attractive to other people around the world. A language barrier may also discourage immigrants into the country (Demathew 89).
By encouraging couples to have more children, the government will be certain that this younger generation will be able to take the normal running of various activities within the country when the current generation gets to the retirement age. It is also the best approach that a country can be assured of its continuity.
As Ballou (38) notes, a one-child policy that has been popular in Europe and many other parts of the developed economies may be disastrous to a country’s future. When a couple gives birth to one child, this could mean that there will be a drastic fall in the population of the country, given that there are other natural factors that may make one fail to give birth at all or die before giving birth.
Preston (644) says that increasing birth rate is the most appropriate solution when dealing with the falling population within a given country. It is the reverse of what was the actual cause of the problem of the declining population. The government will be assured that its future population will be able to handle future needs. This is the surest way of achieving sustainability in the country.
How the government can encourage couples to have more children
When taking this approach, the government must have a clear way that it would use to encourage couples within the country to have a higher number of children. The following are some of the factors it should consider as a way of encouraging couples to have a higher number of children.
- Improve the quality of its education system. The government should also offer free education from lower levels to institutions of higher learning. Couples will be convinced that the burden of educating their children would be taken by the government
- Healthcare facilities, especially the maternity facilities, should be improved to ensure that deliveries are done without any fatalities. Some couples would limit the number of children for fear of fatalities during childbirth.
- The government should have better social amenities and offer these couples decent jobs that would allow them to support many children. Every parent would want to provide for his or her child. For this reason, they would try to limit the population of their children based on their income. With higher income, they may be motivated to have more children
Conclusion
It is clear from the above discussion that the government may find it necessary to encourage couples to have more children with a reduction in population rate. The younger generation is the only assurance of a country’s posterity, and therefore is there is such a drop, then the government would be justified to be concerned. However, the government needs to understand the reason why many couples prefer having smaller families.
This way, it would be able to know how to address the issues to convince them to have a higher number of children. The main duty of government in this would be to ensure that these couples have better income that can help them sustain such large families. The government should also offer to educate their children and offer better healthcare.
Works Cited
Balas, Charles. “The Quantitative Problem of Population.” Population and Development Review. 7. 4 (1981): 685-692.
Ballou, Michael. Population Management for Survival and Recovery: Analytical Methods and Strategies in Small Population Conservation. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Print.
Caselli, Graziella. Demography: Analysis and Synthesis, Four Volume Set. Burlington: Elsevier, 2005. Print.
Cox, Harold. “The Problem of Population.” American Journal of Sociology. 29.5 (2004): 616-617.
Demathew, Jane. Population Management. New Jersey: John Willey & Sons, 2011. Print.
Preston, Samuel. “The Social Sciences and the Population Problem.” Sociological Forum. 2.4 (2006): 619-644.
Weiner, Amir. Landscaping the Human Garden: Twentieth-century Population Management in a Comparative Framework. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003. Print.