Thailand offers incentives for parents to have more children

[webfact]

Thailand offers incentives for parents to have more children

BANGKOK: -- Cash incentives for babies. That's what the Thai government is offering families to try tackle low birth rates and a rapidly aging population.

But not many are convinced the plan will work, as Scott Heidler reports from Bangkok.

-- Al Jazeera 2016-01-21

[gk10002000]

It is easy to have babies. Caring for, providing for, providing a nurturing environment, and paying for are another matter

[ukrules]

Interesting, I believe a similar policy was once used in a European country many years ago.

The author of the article Scott Heidler will be well aware of this.

[inaktive]

perhaps they should start with the basic stuff like make the ( often absent ) fathers PAY for their kids, decent maternity leave and such for the mothers and kindergardens and not one time cash bonuses.

i do not know that many thai girls that are still with the father of their kid/kids ( and no they are mostly not single ) but getting cash from the father of the kid would help a lot encouraging girls to have more babys and if we are honest it is pretty much up to the girls if there will be kids or not.

[trogers]

Why? Need more boom boom girls?

[Ricardo]

Or perhaps start planning for a world where there isn't an abundant supply of cheap labour ?

Welcome to the developed- world !

[AlQaholic]

"Growth" and GNP are the two evils of the modern world.

Daily on CNN they talk about growth and the importance of it, never stops and reflects on what it is and why it is needed.

[recycler]

Improve education and child care facilities may be a better destination for the money...

[klauskunkel]

cash incentives is not enough, throw in a voucher for a motorcycle, so the kid can join a gang when he is 12 years old.

[duckmandon]

Can't look after the ones they have let alone encouraging them to have more. But with all the road deaths, natural causes, murders etc deaths here, the population would be going backwards. Maybe they do need to multiply.

[tuanku]

They have been encouraging a higher birth rate for years, through the subtle means of providing no meaningful sex education to schoolchildren, thereby targeting 14 to 18 year old girls as single mothers.

[stoneyboy]

Excellent idea,make more babies and dump then on the ageing population while the mothers and in some cases fathers disappear to Bangkok to scrape a living making Nike trainers.

[colinneil]

Bloody stupid idea. How many babies born, and only 1 parent trying to take care of them.

Pass the baby to poor old grandmother to take care of.

It is the grandparents who need help, not the young ones.

[Saharat]

perhaps they should start with the basic stuff like make the ( often absent ) fathers PAY for their kids, decent maternity leave and such for the mothers and kindergardens and not one time cash bonuses.

i do not know that many thai girls that are still with the father of their kid/kids ( and no they are mostly not single ) but getting cash from the father of the kid would help a lot encouraging girls to have more babys and if we are honest it is pretty much up to the girls if there will be kids or not.

Is this a joke?

[Mr Tom]

I'm actually amazed when I meet a Thai girl over 20 that does not have a baby living up north with a sister or grandmother.

[motyduke]

The sinking fertility rate of thailand is maybe due to the growth of single lady . Here everybody send money to parents and grandparents and men cannot afford to pay the very big sinsod asked . I know some thaï couples who cannot marry because of the huge sinsod and so they dont make babies too . This is culture maybe but it is so stupid that i think it Will disappear in 2 generations

[OMGImInPattaya]

Has never really worked in any other country where it's been tried. I think it's really hopeless in Thailand, where the ladyboys are so attractive and have turned many mens' proclivities.

[NCC1701A]

i'm doin' my part.

[ratcatcher]

i'm doin' my part.

You should be condomned to two weeks in Pattaya for that comment.

[trainman34014]

What they should be doing is chasing down all the Thai Males that shove buns in the oven and immediately move on to another woman to do the same without ever showing a shred of responsibility for what they spawn. Breed responsible caring Males and the Women might just want to have more children.

[realenglish1]

Until you get Thai men to be responsible for the babies they have it is a bad idea

Right now a Thai man can get a girl pregnant and just walk away from his responsibility Why on earth would a Lady here want another baby

if she is not getting support from the man, Fix this in Thai culture and you will create incentive for woman to have more babies.

Hold me responsible for children as well

[trogers]

When a society cannot ensure quality, they zero in only on quantity.

Thus, my earlier question - Why? Need more boom boom girls?

[NongKhaiKid]

I'm looking forward to the statement that infrastructure, especially education, will be ' improved even more ' to cope.

[Ulic]

The world is heading to 10 billion, do we really need to encourage more. Personally I like

the idea of figuring out how to get back to 3 billion. What money needs to be set aside,

infrastructure, etc....Not about using the next generation to fund the current generations

retirement and needing the population of all countries to grow. Figure out how to make

things work with a declining population don't provide incentives to forever increase the

earths population.

[DrTuner]

Wrong idea. Bite the bullet, let the economy stagnate until the old generation croaks and population densities return to managable levels.

[CantSpell]

Sounds like the 1% need more members in the club of the 99% to exploit...

Give them hand out so they can provide more cheap labor and slaves...

Sharing wealth and improving education and equal chances would be a much better incentive for people to make children....

[namatjira]

In Australia the government offered a 5000 dollar baby bonus to solve the birth rate problem.

What they did not anticipate was the fact that 5000 would not sway a professional couple to have one of them not working

To look after a child....i.e...with a house averaging half a million dollars most young people have to stay in the work force.

The end result was that all the welfare beneficiaries bred like rabbits once again, as they like to do for their benefits.

For many it is a lifestyle....problem again is they are breeding the wrong people.....professional people with degrees and an IQ

Didn't take up the offer due to career and commitment....but the old welfare suckers who left school at 15 and have low IQs

We're away like a rat up a drain.....low IQ parents equal low IQ children....no matter what you say about education,

Brains like everything else are hereditary....2 professors will normally breed pretty intelligent children.

So now Australia has a generation of kids called the Plasma Babies.....so called because they were conceived by the desire

Of the parents to have a 5000 dollar plasma TV......brilliant

Edited January 21, 2016 by namatjira

[connda]

How many Thai kids are raised by grandparent, aunt/uncles, extended families because the mother has to move to the city to work and support the one or two children she has. Thailand needs more kids that are raised by a proxy parent like it needs a hole in the head. The government would be better off addressing the working poor and income disparity.

[Daniel Boon]

three pyramid groups benefit from (continued) population growth; religion (followers), various types of governments (tax payers) and corporations (consumers)

as pointed out elsewhere, the world population is about 7 billion (in the late 1800's it was under 1 billion)

in Australia, the idiot LNP (liberal National Party), at the behest of corporations, had a another economic failure as treasurer (Peter Costello) who introduced a cash payment for an extra child; "one for Dad, one for Mum and one for Australia"

homelessness is way up (younger people), the percentage of unemployed is highest in the younger age groups and the escalation of assault by the younger ones is a growing problem

[MaeJoMTB]

Excellent idea,make more babies and dump then on the ageing population while the mothers and in some cases fathers disappear to Bangkok to scrape a living making Nike trainers.

Nike are made in Vietnam (and ReeBok).

It says so on all mine.