At a time when burgeoning world population is putting a big strain on resources, countries are pushing people to have moe children rather than simply solving the problem through immigration. They might as well say it aloud -- no they don't just want more workers etc, they want more people just like THEMSELVES, dang foreigners just won't do! Okay, maybe nobody wants to go to Russia, but hard to believe France or Scandanavian countries cannot satisfy their labor needs by welcoming people from poor countries which have high population growth and substantial unemployment among its youth!

And of course, countries like France also seem incapable of changing antiquated retirement and pension laws, so they need to have a large 'younger' worker population to support perfectly healthy-and-able-to-work people who are retiring in early 60s, and are then entitled to excessively generous entitlements from the govt for the remaining of their 20-25 years of life!

But a country does not just want warm bodies within its borders. It wants an educated citizenship. This means that it can't take the large masses of uneducated, unemployed workers from developing countries. Yes, these developed countries with low fertility rates can fill in gaps with large numbers of educated workers from overpopulated countries (and they do!). This "solution," however, leaves the developing countries without the citizens that they need the most.

This comment seems to ignore the fact that toddlers and feotuses generally don't make up an educated citizenship.

They are encouraging baby-making with these new legislative and financial measures, not encouraging education. Education is a seperate issue.

The massive population issue we face is a world issue and immigration and international adoption is the solution, not making more babies. There is no world shortage of babies, we're plenty good at making them.

that all the social engineering that is either discussed or actually carried out all winds up at the same place. Countries who limit the birth rate, as in China, are now in crisis. As is Russia. We can moan about how the population of the earth is ruining the planet and all. But when all the whining is over, the birth rate still comes down to a man and a woman and a bed. It's never ultimately going to be a legislative decision. The choice of whether or not to have a baby will always be up to the individual. That's the good part...

Of course babies do not come out of the womb ready to take on the responsibility of maintaining and improving our infrastructure and productivity. These babies, though, have a much higher return on investment, since they will still have their entire adult lives ahead of them after the country educates them. They, as children, are also much easier to educate and have built in language and culture teachers in the form of their parents.

Immigrants, on the other hand, will want to start working and earning money immediately, and will probably not wait through several years of language, cultural, and professional education.

The idea is to establish and maintain a steady stream of educated workers into the population, and the easiest way to do this is to encourage the present population to have children at the replacement rate.

World adoption is part of the solution, and many Americans do adopt children from other countries. These adoptions are by people who are willing to have a child in the first place. The government could encourage people to adopt rather than give birth, but giving birth is cheaper, faster, and easier. The people who are willing to adopt are usually just as willing to give birth, but can't for whatever reason.

or "German" or "Swedish". I thinks its perfectly fine for a culture to want to protect itself from dilution. Why should France become Zaire or Algeria? Why should Swedes in 2100 look like Turks? As for promoting babies, the issue is not birthrates but immigration rates. The third world can make babies, they have proven that over and over again. We here in the First World just don't necessarily want to turn Paris into Nairobi or Stockholm into Istanbul. Sorry but melting pots are not for everyone and every culture. If you want everyone to be grey, we are fast going there. I can see humankind in 2300 AD. Everyone looks like everyone else, a form of light khaki, average height 2.3 meters and all speaking Chinese. eeegaaddss....

That's not entirely true, there have been many cases of forced sterilization and forced procreation, women are raped during wars and occupations all the time with the intent of ethnic cleansing. I agree that the governments of "normal" countries can't make the decisions for people, but financial incentive is usually a huge factor. Look at all the welfare moms here.

All just work together, we'd solve alot of things.. the world should be one....