If the goal is to have children, then efforts must be made to ensure people can afford to do so and to make sure the health care system nurtures them. Some cou

If the goal is to have children, then efforts must be made to ensure people can afford to do so and to make sure the health care system nurtures them. Some countries and provinces are doing this but “spending money on others” is really out of favour right now. Children are both a direct and indirect cost: primarily women are removed from the work force and raising them costs money. This means companies and governments have to create things like child care and career retention plans to allow parents to raise newborns and then return to work. They have to retain jobs in the country or province/state so people can make money, and such jobs have to provide health care or the governments must do so. Domestic production will raise prices a little, and this is something societies must do to keep job opportunities present. Will this happen? Today, no. Having children will remain the domain of the (very) poor and possibly (very) rich. Everybody else has to work to preserve their current situation. Perhaps immigration will provide the needed younger workers, but that’s politically unacceptable. Better to let food rot in the fields than let “them” in.