What will it cost?
North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has pleaded (with tears) for women to have more children. The Bank of Korea has warned in a new report that South Korea is at risk of contracting economically and also in its ability to defend itself if the record-low birth rate continues. New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat, wrote that South Korea risks “a depopulation exceeding what the Black Death delivered to Europe in the 14th century" if current trends continue.
North Korea may have low population growth due to destitution and an inadequate health system, but South Koreans are more likely plagued by the same problems as every Western nation – opportunity cost. Videos of so-called DINKs have been doing the rounds on social media. Couples who claim the status of “Double Income No Kids” boast of their ability to sleep in, holiday spontaneously and spend money on whatever they like. Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh says “it’s hard to explain the benefits of children to people who don’t have them, but it’s easy to describe the opportunity cost.” Why would you wake up through the night for a newborn if you could be out partying instead? To the young people in the DINKs videos, the sacrifices are obvious, but the rewards, especially long term ones are harder to see, (especially if you have no example in your own life). As an economist, Nowrasteh argues that if governments are serious about more babies, they should heavily tax the “second worker in any household to force them out of the labor market.”
A piece at liberal outlet Vox has a different take. Writer Rachel M Cohen argues that a lot of women are bowing out of the mothering game because it is so daunting. In addition, young women are not confident they will make good parents and don’t want to risk that the relationship with their child could go sour. She says that women need more encouragement, support and family-friendly policies. A paper published earlier this year agrees that more couples would have more babies if government would lower the regulatory burden of raising children, including helping with the cost of food and education but also car seat rules and when children can be left unattended at home.
Here’s a strange factoid (though it makes sense if you think about it): On The Briefing, Al Mohler discussed a report which showed that the more wealthy a man is, the more likely he is to be married and a father. The more wealthy a woman is, the less likely she is to be married or a mother. Since women have entered the workforce, “a stay at home mom is now not only an exception in many cultural contexts, but quite frankly is looked at by some economists as a non-productive economic unit”, he said. “Some of the champions of capitalism are also the champions of disruption in society.”
Whether due to low self-confidence in an age with few mentors, or the sheer distracting power of the shiny objects of leisure and consumption, parenting is a hard sell to a society that heeds no creation mandate to “fill the earth”. All the while, transhumanist technologies like the contraceptive Pill continue to separate things that should belong together - marriage, sex and babies.
A thousand small changes in society, decisions by lawmakers and clever marketing by corporations have left many nations with a dilemma. But the church must be different. We know that children are a gift from God and also that family brings solace which possessions and experience cannot – even though parenting has a way of stretching you! Joy Pullman said it well: “Children are God’s best personal development systems.”