Germans Get Incentives for Having Babies

[Karin]

BERLIN - When her water broke early on New Year’s Eve, Julia Gotschlich was mainly thinking about the imminent birth of her second child. But she couldn’t help worrying about family finances, too.
She and her husband stood to lose out on more than $13,200 if the baby arrived before midnight, when Germany’s generous new family benefits took effect - part of a government effort to raise one of the lowest birthrates in Europe.
Births in Germany dropped 4 percent in 2005 from the previous year, according to figures from the Federal Statistics Agency, to around 690,000. That’s the lowest since World War II and lagging even 1946, when 922,000 babies were born even as the country lay in ruins.
A recent government study forecast that Germany’s population will drop by as much as 16 percent by 2050, from the current 82.4 million to as little as 69 million. That could hurt the economy by sapping the work force - and undermine the state pension system.
Facing such an alarming demographic trend, the German government has shaken up its financial assistance to parents in a bid to make it easier for working women to have children.
optonline.net/News/Article/Feeds?CID=type%3Dxml%26channel%3D32%26article%3D20704900

 

[Catholic_Dude]

BERLIN - When her water broke early on New Year’s Eve, Julia Gotschlich was mainly thinking about the imminent birth of her second child. But she couldn’t help worrying about family finances, too.
She and her husband stood to lose out on more than $13,200 if the baby arrived before midnight, when Germany’s generous new family benefits took effect - part of a government effort to raise one of the lowest birthrates in Europe.
Births in Germany dropped 4 percent in 2005 from the previous year, according to figures from the Federal Statistics Agency, to around 690,000. That’s the lowest since World War II and lagging even 1946, when 922,000 babies were born even as the country lay in ruins.
A recent government study forecast that Germany’s population will drop by as much as 16 percent by 2050, from the current 82.4 million to as little as 69 million. That could hurt the economy by sapping the work force - and undermine the state pension system.
Facing such an alarming demographic trend, the German government has shaken up its financial assistance to parents in a bid to make it easier for working women to have children.
optonline.net/News/Article/Feeds?CID=type%3Dxml%26channel%3D32%26article%3D20704900

I read this on Yahoo News today and it was a shocking insight. What is it with people not wanting to have families? Is our western culture so self centered that kids are a burden and hinder the adults from obtaining material goods?

 

[Al_Masetti]

The Italian birth rate is supposedly even lower.

Can’t understand why the Euro is so strong, given the weakness of the European economy, high unemployment, etc.

 

[steveandersen]

…
Can’t understand why the Euro is so strong, given the weakness of the European economy, high unemployment, etc.

Euroland contains some of the richest nations on the planet

the Euro is strong because the Dollar is weak; the yen and yuan are kept artificially undervalued, and there realy isn’t another serious reserve currency arround other than the Pound which is also quite strong.