March 28, 2013 (C-FAM.org) – An article from Keith Riler at First Things fleshes out the long term effects of population control efforts among the poor in America. Riler suggests that the FED and States should gladly spend $11,000 worth of Medicare on births among poor Americans, rather then spend for family planning. Riler sees it as an investment.
The argument is based on the fact, at least in the U.S., that few people remain permanently under the poverty line, and therefore it is better for people to be born, even if in poverty. Here is the crux:
Assume that upon exiting poverty, sooner or later these people experience the same average result—an average job with an average income ($46,600), average income taxes (13.8 percent), average property taxes (in Texas, $1,475/year), and average sales taxes (in Texas, $1,684/year). At these levels, an average adult who was born into poverty will pay federal, state, and local governments about $430,000 over a working lifetime of forty-five years (ages twenty-one to sixty-five). That’s thirty-nine times the $11,000 Medicaid-birth investment.
Assuming that government spending on family planning actually has an effect on fertility levels, which is disputed, the implications of this kind of analysis can reach beyond the confines of the wealthy USofA. We can brign this line of thinking to developing countries and even least developed countries, especially in sub-Sharan Africa, with great profit.
UN officials think population control is an absolute necessity in Africa, whether coercive or not. While much is said about the “demographic dividend” to incentivize African leaders to follow countries in Asia who jumped on the population control bandwagon decades ago (with brutal programs that continue to this day), African leaders might want to think again about what they are hearing. In my opinion this promotion of slow population control is reckless at best, and may actually be malicious.
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Most countries in Africa barely have a viable political system, let alone a fiscal system. Telling countries to reduce their populations, and their future workforce is like cutting the legs of a possible fiscal order before it is even set in place.
The welfare state is bankrupt in the USA and EU thanks to declining fertility, despite the fact that countries in the EU and the USA collet trillions of dollars in taxes every year. What will the fiscal systems of African nations look like in 30 yrs when the desired effect of the population control policies of the UNFPA and its partners will kick in? Some countries will probably just have begun to develop welfare systems. other might have had one in place for little over a decade. It is hard to fathom Africa plunging deeper into poverty than it already is, but it is not impossible.
If one were to use the above logic, and take it to its full extent, then family planning programs funded by the USA and EU countries are the principal means for wealthy countries to keep poor countries undeveloped. Just think of how far the money from the extra taxes could go in an African nation where people subsist on much less than $1 a day.
What about the argument that family planning is about women’s choices?
If it were a choice the last two generations of African women, who have grown up on UN educational materials telling them to use condoms or die, should have already drastically reduced the number of children they have. They haven’t. It means, that contrary to radical feminists who have an ideological aversion to marriage, family and children, many women in the world want children, and more then one or two for that matter. It is a pity that they have neither the time nor leisure to trounce around the globe telling people what women want like the radical feminists you are likely to run in in the halls of any global or national political institution (no doubt they will say that African women don’t know what they should want).
Family planning is just another word for population control, let no one be deluded. It has little to do with women choosing, and a lot to do with people being told what is best for them and their country.
This story is reprinted with permission from C-FAM.org.