Crazy off-the-cuff idea: Since apparently none of this birthrate-encouragement is going to work, just have the government make kids itself and cut out parents entirely. Legalize trade in surrogacy and egg/sperm cells, make as many kids as required then house them in "orphanages" until they're adults.
How would one find that many women to be surrogates? Africa, probably; it won't take too much money until a paid 40-week vacation in e.g. the Korean countryside will seem an attractive option to many. (The median wage in Nigeria is about $9000/year, and just paying that on conclusion isn't much all things considered.)
Aren't orphanages really terrible places where the children will suffer? Probably not, the poor outcomes of current abandoned children is much more the fact that statistically they've inherited terrible traits from their deadbeat/intellectually disabled/addict parents. If you pick the top-10% of parents by some sane scoring method instead and make kids from that, I'd bet their upbringing – with peers of the same sort – would get much more pleasant.
Aren't orphanages really terrible places where the children will suffer? Probably not, the poor outcomes of current abandoned children is much more the fact that statistically they've inherited terrible traits from their deadbeat/intellectually disabled/addict parents. If you pick the top-10% of parents by some sane scoring method instead and make kids from that, I'd bet their upbringing – with peers of the same sort – would get much more pleasant.
Orphanages and foster care are, by any objective look, terrible places where neglect is standard and severe child abuse is common place.
I’m not throwing shade at foster parents or orphanage workers here; everything we know about these places is that they jack up the kids even when run by people more competent than the government. And paying Nigerian teenagers $20k to have Korean designer babies won’t change that, either, because it’s an inherent feature of orphanages that they’re dramatically worse than nuclear families.
Better than never having existed at all, surely! There's also similar things like British boarding schools that we already accept, so it doesn't seem too beyond the pale?
These British kids are heirs to something, orphans won't get anything from their parents by definition.
But in this hypothetical at least they could from the government. If the state is so desperate for new citizens it is paying for babies, I don't think we can rule out the system in which they are raised might also be much better funded and run. They will be valuable if nothing else.
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Notes -
Crazy off-the-cuff idea: Since apparently none of this birthrate-encouragement is going to work, just have the government make kids itself and cut out parents entirely. Legalize trade in surrogacy and egg/sperm cells, make as many kids as required then house them in "orphanages" until they're adults.
How would one find that many women to be surrogates? Africa, probably; it won't take too much money until a paid 40-week vacation in e.g. the Korean countryside will seem an attractive option to many. (The median wage in Nigeria is about $9000/year, and just paying that on conclusion isn't much all things considered.)
Aren't orphanages really terrible places where the children will suffer? Probably not, the poor outcomes of current abandoned children is much more the fact that statistically they've inherited terrible traits from their deadbeat/intellectually disabled/addict parents. If you pick the top-10% of parents by some sane scoring method instead and make kids from that, I'd bet their upbringing – with peers of the same sort – would get much more pleasant.
Orphanages and foster care are, by any objective look, terrible places where neglect is standard and severe child abuse is common place.
I’m not throwing shade at foster parents or orphanage workers here; everything we know about these places is that they jack up the kids even when run by people more competent than the government. And paying Nigerian teenagers $20k to have Korean designer babies won’t change that, either, because it’s an inherent feature of orphanages that they’re dramatically worse than nuclear families.
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They are. It's like being stuck in school or in shitty summer camp with no activities 24/7 for eighteen years.
Better than never having existed at all, surely! There's also similar things like British boarding schools that we already accept, so it doesn't seem too beyond the pale?
I reject the very first step in the mere addition paradox, so no.
These British kids are heirs to something, orphans won't get anything from their parents by definition.
But in this hypothetical at least they could from the government. If the state is so desperate for new citizens it is paying for babies, I don't think we can rule out the system in which they are raised might also be much better funded and run. They will be valuable if nothing else.
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