Not what you may think.
We all know that Korea has a serious baby deficiency. The solution? According the today’s Chosun Ilbo, Korean policy makers are taking a serious look at France’s social welfare model.
What? Copy a bloated European social welfare program? Say it ain’t so!
But apparently it works. Per the article:
In 1993, France’s fertility rate hit a historic low of 1.66 children per woman aged between 15 and 49. But thanks to a series of policies, it now has the highest fertility rate in Europe with 1.98 as of 2007.
However, affordability will certainly be a problem:
The problem is budget. According to the calculation of the Welfare Ministry under Jeon’s order, the government needs W19.3 trillion (US$1=W,1385) every year in order to carry out the French model reform, which well exceeds the budget allotted to the ministry for a whole year. (Emphasis mine).
Yikes! Could it be cheaper to just make every Korean a conservative Catholic?
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I think if you dig into the data the increase in the fertility rate is not do to “a series of policies” but to the Muslim portion of the population in France.
Bet a dime to a dollar that the non-Muslim fertility rate is still poor.
I had the same thought, ScottF.
As for US Catholic fertility rates, if one factors out Hispanic immigrants, Catholic family sizes are about the same as those of other Christians. Birth control was already becoming accepted by women of my mother’s generation. A majority of her siblings appear to have used artificial birth control, judging by the number of children. The rhythm method is unreliable; my two youngest brothers are living proof. When I was in school, there were a number of families with 5+ kids, but they were already a dying breed. I had some friends with many older siblings but very few friends with many younger siblings. That is because most Catholics who reached adulthood after the early 1960s have more liberal views about sex. Nearly all Catholic married couples were sexually active before marriage and since they regard the basic function of sex as recreation and not procreation, most disregard the Church’s condemnation of artificial birth control.
Wow… that single Muslim banner that pops up here is something new…
Well, here’s a REAL Catholic’s view on contraception. Not that I’m a Catholic, of course.
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/.....tity.shtml
Why not ask that French guy that got deported to come back encore une fois, avec plusieurs des son amis? They could make some sexy chit chat with ze ladies, and in no time the population would be back on track. However, there would be la problme que les dames Corean sont tres tres virtuous, to overcome….
For you folks not in the Middle East.
Scottf is probably correct. According to demographer Jacques Dupâquier, female French citizens of French descent had a fertility of 1.7 in 2007, female French citizen of whatever descent’s was 1.8, but the official figure for fertility in France hit a record 2.02 in 2008. That’s because it accounts for all women, whatever their nationality, probably including illegal aliens. And take a look at the fertility of non-French citizens in France: Africans’ (Black) is 4.4, Turks’ 3.3, North Africans’ (Arab) 3.25 and Asians’ 2.83. Interestingly, these foreigners’ fertility is also systematically higher than back in their home countries.
HT to Anenzephalia (in French)
Sonagi – Good point about US birth rates in the Catholic community Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic.
I think religion and culture do play a part in average family size and birth rates but the biggest factor is how far along a group is in the modern economy and the amount of ease people want for themselves and their kids (i.e. having children in an agrarian society as a form of future security versus the time and expense of raising children in upper middle class families.
I think Korea ought to concentrate on getting off the bottom of this table:
http://www.nationmaster.com/gr.....diture-gdp
Instead of aspiring to be at the top of it.
One thing we noticed, the wife and I, when we went back to France for a couple of years, is that while the immigrant population seems to have, as an average, a large brood per household, the “natives” also seem to have more kids. The local kindergarten cum primary school next door our flat is already over capacity, and our hood is very very white. We seemed to see so many many pregnant women, and young mothers, of all races.
The thing that did shock us is the number of smoking pregnant women. Amazing.
The welfare state, as it is today in France, is a huge mess, but people indeed seem to have more time and money to make kids. Not that I’d want to have again to pay the kind of taxes levied on French households…
French social services are excellent and if they are emulated in Korea, I’ll be impressed.
If they are emulated in Korea, I’ll have a lot of compassion for the taxpayers.
That is unfortunate. The French government taxes its citizens to pay for economic incentives to have children. Does the French government also pay for anti-smoking incentives? Smoking dads aren’t good for fetal development, either, as the mom breathes in unfiltered second-hand smoke and passes the toxins to her unborn child. There is increasing evidence that prenatal exposure to cigarette toxins causes permanent damage, including a thicker endothelial lining to blood vessels, setting the stage for high blood pressure and atherosclerosis later. Now that more and more Korean women are smoking, I wonder how many will be able to kick the habit once they get pregnant?
Nobody has yet to make a snarky comment about french babies and a freezer…oh wait…shoot.
DM, that’s harsh.
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