Why is it they always go the silliest route? This isn't working for Russia and won't work here. For one thing, they don't have the money. For another, people have children when they feel there's a future for them.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated a new policy on Tuesday to encourage population growth, dismissing Iran's decades of family planning as ungodly and a Western import.
The new government initiative will pay families for every new child and deposit money into the newborn's bank account until they reach 18, effectively rolling back years of efforts to boost the economy by reducing the country's runaway population growth.
"Those who raise idea of family planning, they are thinking in the realm of the secular world," Ahmadinejad said during the inauguration ceremony.
The plan is part of Ahmadinejad's stated commitment to further increase Iran's population, which is already estimated at 75 million. He has previously said the country could feed up to 150 million.
The program would be especially attractive to the lower income segments of the population who supported Ahmadinejad in the 2005 and 2009 elections.
Throughout his tenure, the president has promoted populist policies in Iran, where 10 million people are estimated to live under the poverty line.
Family planning reversal
It is unclear, however, where the funds would come from as the government is already having trouble paying for basic infrastructure projects.
Starting in the early 1970s, Iran waged a successful family planning campaign across the country, including banners in public health care centers reading "two children are enough."
It was reversed after the 1979 Islamic revolution only to be brought back 10 years later when the population ballooned and the economy faltered.
Throughout the 1990s, Iran tried to reduce population growth by encouraging men and women to use free or inexpensive contraceptives, as well as vasectomies. The government brought down the country's population growth rate from its 1986 height of 3.9 percent to just 1.6 percent in 2006.
Ahmadinejad caused public outcry, however, when shortly after he was elected in 2005 he said two children per family were not enough and urged Iranians to have more.
Under the new plan each child born in the current Iranian year, which began March 21, will receive a deposit of $950 in a government bank account. They will then continue to receive another $95 every year until they reach 18. Parents will also be expected to pay matching funds into the accounts.
Under the initiative's rules children can withdraw the money at the age of 20 and use it for education, marriage, health and housing.
Iran's official unemployment rate is about 10 percent, but estimates say there are 3 million unemployed people of working age in the country.
Following the earlier baby boom, some 26 million Iranians are between the ages of 15 and 30.
Let me illustrate. In the US, when people felt the most optimistic about the future, the birth rate went up (because of this I'm willing to bet that the birthrate has dropped this past year). For example the baby boom, when we defeated the Axis, ended world war II and everyone thought they had a bright and happy future to look forward to (again this is just in the US), we had us a shitton of babies. For that matter after Gulf War I, there was a mini-baby boom and the birth rate did creep up a bit in the 90s.
Let's look at the opposite side here, Russia. Through out the 1970s and 80s when the Russians began to get more pessimistic about their future and well being, their birth rate dropped (part of this was rampant abortions, to the tune of an average 7 abortions per women in the USSR) and when the USSR fell? The birth rate dropped like a rock right through the floor.
In short if you want your people to have kids? You need to either put them in a situation where they need to have alot of kids for labor (the poorest nations in the world) or they can believe in a good and bright future for themselves and their children.
Additional fun fact: The nations of western Europe have for the last couple decades had a poorer view of the future then the US and other nations. They've also had a lower birth rate.
