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So, motteizeans, thought experiment- you’ve been hired by the government of a country you’ve conveniently never noticed before, let’s call it genericland. Genericland has a problem- they have an economy dependent on high tech manufactured exports using highly skilled labor that can’t be imported, it has to be homegrown, and has had a TFR of 1.5 for long enough that the government is seriously worried about a labor crunch taking them from an upper to a middle income economy in 20 years or so. They’ve hired you to raise the birthrate enough to save the economy in the long run, and are willing to spend .5% of GDP to get it to 1.8 or 1% to get it to 2.1. You don’t have reserve currency status, but genericland has excellent credit ratings. The government is dominated by long-running consensus politics and will stick with your recommendations long term. They aren’t concerned with feminism, but are dependent on remaining in American good graces and are well aware that they cannot get away with saudi-level black sheep behavior. The population is homogenous and speaks a language not spoken elsewhere, but 90% are fluent in English. Family norms are perhaps slightly more conservative than PMC American ones, but not by a wide margin. And, of course, because the government wants future factory workers, it’s strongly preferred if the fertility increase doesn’t come from genericland’s underclass and doesn’t care how it affects the elites, it needs to target the working to middle classes.
What do you do?
For myself, all women with white collar jobs get two year’s entitlement to WFH after every childbirth in addition to parental leave, in which they can’t be required in the office more often than 1x week. Renters who get married have access to a government loan to buy the apartment or house they rent, and the government issues loans to couples having a 3rd child to help buy a bigger home. At a fifth child these loans are forgiven and payments pause for three years after a fourth. The ministry of culture is directed to work with generican-language pop culture producers to promote pro-family memes, female pop stars are paid to give interviews and sing about how much they love being a mom. High schools now require ‘family formation’ classes to graduate in which teens assist existing families with childcare(particularly for girls this is strongly associated with wanting kids) and learn social skills for forming relationships, along with some basic home ec. New fathers get an automatic 5% raise regardless of employer. Female civil servants have the option to go part time if raising a child, and genericland’s many factories are enrolled in a subsidy program that pays them to allow female workers with a child under ten to work part time.
They want factory workers, so that means both sexes. Ban men from going to college (unless their parents are the upper-middle/upper class), ban single men from living alone or with non-relatives. Then maybe you get men marrying women and starting families.
Except that the government wants workers, not stay-at-home mothers. So the women will have to have babies as well as going out to be the high-tech labour force, and that is the problem in a nutshell. Do you want bodies on the production lines, or do you want wives and mothers?
Women can replace men in factories, but men can't replace women as childbearers and primary nurturers. You want high IQ, high conscientiousness women bearing most of the children, and raising them to be high-conscientiousness citizens. I don't think it's possible (or desireable, frankly) to put the genie back in the bottle in terms of women in the workplace, but I think you can create a middle ground that encourages motherhood and family while also allowing women to succeed professionally.
Public Policies to adopt:
Abortion is illegal outside of rape, incest, congenital disease, or life of mother exceptions, and requires prompt reporting of rape and DNA testing of incest reasons.
A conviction for incest means lifetime incarceration.
Primary and Secondary schools are year-round and align with typical work-weeks. Teacher compensation increased to reflect higher workload.
School curricula focused on STEM education, basic literacy, civics, physical education and vocational classes.
College-level online courses free to all citizens on STEM and vocational classes - no other higher education is subsidized.
Government pays for all pre-natal and pediatric medical care.
Grant tax incentives to:
Companies with very generous mat leave up to two years.
Companies who offer work schedules for mothers and single caregiving fathers to align with school hours and holidays.
Families with two parents with children. The benefits don't expire when the children reach age of majority.
Married couples who adopt.
Single mothers who give up their infants for adoption, doubled if it is their own parents or relatives adopting the child.
Community beautification services or other civic engagement.
Military service - lifetime supplemental stipend assuming an honorable discharge.
Add tax penalties for:
Parents whose children are convicted of felonies and incarcerated, by canceling the tax incentives above.
Families with school-aged children where both parents work full-time.
Divorce. In the case of provable unilateral adultery, the adulterer suffers the tax consequences for both partners.
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