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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   2823 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 23, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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Cheap childcare, social safety nets, and generous parental leave are commonly cited as reasons for why the birthrate in those countries are higher than their neighbors

It's interesting why that's the case. Lyman Stone says it's because there's an upper bound on free childcare. You can give free childcare from age five (school) or start earlier than that, but ultimately there's a limit because you can't provide free childcare for babies who are -1 years old. Whereas with baby bonuses, you can make them arbitrarily high.

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