Rant Baby bonus

A few people seem to think $5000 is like winning tattslotto In Australia, like some countries, $1000 can buy you a pram & a cot & a car seat, or expensive ones will add up to about $2.5k A couple of years of nappies will equal about $3k-$4k, and that's if you buy the nappies in bulk packs and get him toilet trained by the baby's 2nd year birthday, which is not easy to do.

Any leftover money can go towards formula, bottles, jumpsuits, blankets, toys, + many more things which ends up exceeding $5k in the first year, and each year gets more expensive - these dim witted parents that think "wow, $5000, why not have a little baby, they don't cost much!!!" well they soon find out what they cost, which is not just the money but alot of quality time, for those that choose to raise their kids properly that is...

 

Sure $5k would be nice for my daughter. However, it's not like we don't already have overpopulation. Not certain why there should be an incentive to procreate. Besides, we're a big family and there's other resources. Isn't that what families are for anyway? Or religious institutions for that matter. I'd rather see the money placed in a savings account for education of the child or something of that nature. Not quite so easily used for drugs, alcohol or things not related to the child that needs it.

Guess I'm of age to be a grandmother, but I'm still a kid at heart (yes, I admit to liking toys... boys' toys..and er, um... jewelry). Romance me with a new graphics card or a pair of earrings, either is cool! Can hardly wait to introduce the baby to tech. My daughter was trying to put a diskette in an Apple //e computer before she was a year old.

Anyway, back on point: resources that are too easily turned into a commodity by the parents bring more overall problems and little goes to the child. Most families with a good financial head on them won't be in such a dire situation as to need it. And yes, I believe there should be safety nets, at least for the innocent children. Here in Colorado, they have healthcare insurance available for all children. That I think is a good idea.

 

Yeah, it would be better for governments to just put the cash in a school fund, rather than giving the parents the cash, but school is a few years away. If the government wants to help new families in an effort to boost the population & growth of the country, then i reckon helping in the first year is most important, such as vouchers for nappies, healthcare, formula, clothing, etc, as this is where most people are at home with the baby - further incentives to encourage people into the workplace with good childcare facilities would be the next step, so that families can be independant, able to afford expenses such as schooling, without any government help.

Boosting the population like this is bad for inflation aswell! Most of Australia is empty, and our population was increasing moderately before the baby boom. The last few years have seen the population rise at an increasing rate, last year was a record year for the number of immigrants to Australia btw The government has incentives there aswell... A huge amounts of immigrants can be good just as easily as it can be bad, for too many reasons.

I do think boosting Australia's population could be a good thing, if there was some action such as developing new cities! There is alot of desert here in oz, but there's plenty of nice land too! But no, overcrowding of the current cities & inflation is all that is currently happening and little if not nothing good comes from overcrowding

 

I know I shouldn't laugh. But this is quite funny. Who's idea was this and by who was it approved?

 

Stupid coughmafiacough i mean government's idea, delivered through this government department. Isn't the world lucky to have managed to place the best people for the job in all the governments around the world

 

That's the tragic of the human race right now... Everyone with enough sense to think about it is not procreating.

It's a proven demographic that lower educated (a nice way to say "dumber" ) people have more kids. Now I know that this is a very unethical way of looking at it, and i am not saying we should sterilize all people with an IQ under 100, but there's undeniably a problem coming up here...

We are dumbing up the world people!

Luckily i have a solution. Nerds of the world, we should unite and start doing our duty for the human race. Get away from behind that computer and go say "hi" to the girl next door!
Ever heard of the expression "to f**k a girls brains out"? It's time we start f**king the brains back in! Go! Do your duty! Do it for the future!

 

Interesting and definitely fresh. There's also the fact that if smart people don't breed, and only dumb people breed, then the only future possible is the extinction of this "smart" species, and the prosperity of the "dumb" species.... hrrmmmm, wait a minute, that's not that smart is it? Would we call a species that is extinct solely from it's decision not to procreate, intelligent? Yes, there is the stereotype of the uneducated family, with heaps of kids, living off all the welfare, kids not being raised anywhere near properly, and being nothing but a burden on society - i'm definitelty NOT calling these people smart!

I'm just taking a stab at "Needless to say, I chose not to have any. That's how highly I rate them."
To me, that makes absolutely no sense and i'd like to read the reasoning behind that. It sounds way too much like an insecure kid that says things like "i don't want to make a move on that girl cos i respect her so much, i don't want to disrepect her by making a move"
I don't get it Nexxo, you seem like a very well educated guy, i'm curious, are you maybe scared of having a kid? or maybe do you maybe not want to give the time & effort to raise a kid? These two guesses may be completely way off, and i hope i'm not digging into something too personal here, but i kind of assume you wouldn't write a statement like that without being prepared to back it up.
You see to me:
"Having children is a big choice to make. It is a massive responsibility that involves massive sacrifices. One has to look forward to sorrow as mush as joy. It is not a decision that should be taken easily or lightly. You should have children only when you really, really mean to have them. They will be the single most important thing you do, the single most important reason for your existence. Your life will never be your own again."
This just sounds to me like the reasons for wanting to grow, mature and become someone good enough to perform well at this single most important reason for your existence. It sounds a bit like the choice made when someone is training for the olympics, or the choice a coach makes when training his olympic or any other great team.

 

Don't go all psychological on me now.

It's simple. As I said having children is a very serious business. So you should only have them if you really want them, and are prepared to make the investment. I like children, but on balance I'm not prepared to.

I think that being an aunt or uncle can be as important a role as being a parent --to be a trusted adult outside the immediate family, to turn to when a child feels it cannot turn to the parents about something (some things are too close), and to provide a balance or support when parents have their own issues getting in the way of parenting.

 

on an interesting side note: some social animals do that, some give birth while others play the role of aunts and uncles and protect and feed the young, then the roles invert in the next reproduction season, or not, depending on the species, age and environment, this way the young grow stronger and faster and more intelligent and the group and local environment is not stressed out.

on that: grand parents also have a very important role in the growing up of several species of animals, specially grandmothers (males don't usually last as long as females in the human species), in several parts of Africa grandmothers take care of the kids while the parents go out to work, it has been seen that with this the kids grow faster and stronger and most of the time more intelligent that if they were taken care of by their mothers.