Gill:
It is interesting how people believe that looking after children is only a job when someone else does it other than the parents.
In that case, we expect these carers of children to be reasonably well paid and qualified.
Yes, paid by the parents. You don't get paid to wash your own car, mow your own lawn or cook your own meals. Why should you be paid to look after your own children?
I do the job of a nurse, teacher, carer, chef, laundry lady, cleaner etc, and receive not a penny for it and neither do I expect to.
Nor should you. As a parent, you chose to have children and to bear all the costs of doing so.
There is a rapidly falling birth rate in our area as kids are too expensive to have these days.
Perhaps it's too expensive for many people to have children because they are being forced to subsidise other people's fecundity. Having a hot tub in your garden is expensive too. How many hot tubs do I have to get before the government starts paying me?
Who will be the firemen, teachers, doctors, nurses, carers etc of the future?
The more skilled jobs will probably be done by the children of parents who decided to limit the number of children they had in order to be able to provide a better upbringing and education. The less skilled jobs will be done by the children of those who bred like rabbits. If there is a shortfall, immigration from countries with a surpluas said above - Governments should have bridging programs to help families get off Welfare.
More to the point, who will be the parents of the future? Doesn't seem to be many volunteers these days.
Don't worry, the people who start having children young and have lots of children are outbreeding those who are more careful and considerate. The likes of the Gillespies will be grandparents before many of their gainfully-employed contemporaries become parents. The only question as the ratio of spongers to taxpayers increases is who's going to pay for all those children.
core:
as said above - Governments should have bridging programs to help families get off Welfare.
Agreed. My proposal is that the government should gradually reduce the amount paid to welfare recipients until it becomes worth their while to work or until the welfare payment reaches zero - whichever happens first. Parents who pay the costs associated with having children tend not to have more children than they can afford. Problem solved.
