Ban corporations from owning residential properties. Outlaw rent as a form of slavery. Every person currently renting residential property becomes the owner of the property they're renting. The 14,000,000 empty residential properties in the USA which are mostly corporate owned get confiscated and distributed based on the needs and skills of the families that need them. Empty 6 bedroom farmhouse on 40 acres of land goes to a family with 5 kids that is willing to farm. One bedroom condominium in the city goes to a single person or a couple. Housing is a human right. Fuck corporations. Tax the wealthy the way they did 80 years ago and use the money to pay for universal health care and free college. Tax robotic labor and AI administrative labor to pay for universal basic income. Let the robots do the work, just give us all our fair share. Nationalize all fossil fuels as a step to phasing them out. When the money from selling oil all goes to the public good rather than corporate profits, it will be much easier to switch to renewables. With free housing, UBI, free college, and universal healthcare in place, lots of people will be interested in having children.

It costs $40k/year for daycare. Start handing out $5k to moms, daycare now costs $45k/year.

People are not having kids because the middle class cannot afford it. Assuming your household has the average American household income of 80k. This would give the household something like 40k at most after the kid's associated expenses, which means that each parent would have a whopping 20k to themselves. This is positively fucked because they would have to have a quality of life similar to someone who is eligible for food stamps, but they would not be themselves. Kids are for those who already benefit from government programs, or those who can afford a very expensive pet for a minimum of 15 years.

All this will do is increase the number of children born into poverty, which already accounts for the majority of children born in America.

You want an actual solution? Give parents food stamps up to a yearly income of 120k

I also find the implication that a human life is worth $5,000 disgusting.

It was clear to me that when the gov't went after reproductive rights, it was because declining birthrates are detrimental to capitalism. The money cannot stop; the money cannot slow down. Capitalism REQUIRES exponential growth in every regard.

Any "moral" reason given by a politician against abortion is a thinly veiled disguise to ensure that the machine always has enough cogs to keep running and growing.

How are you going to say a fetus is priceless and then say a live infant is worth $5,000? Fucking disgusting.

There's literally been bipartisan efforts to expand the child tax credit ($1000 per year baseline, expanded to $2000 for 2018-2025 and expiring this year, plus COVID era provisions or up to $3000 or $3600 for 2021), and the bills to do so keep dying without a vote.

If they were serious about this they'd expand the 2021 program to where parents were getting $300 checks every month, and make that permanent and indexed to inflation.

So much of the Trump presidency is announcing a new program that sounds good, but isn't even enough to make up for a program that he already killed.

"What could a childcare cost, ten dollars?"

Maybe they should improve the quality of life for working families to get them to be confident enough to have more babies naturally?

....nah, it's obviously the queers fault!

Oh there will be a boom of... abandoned babies for the fostercare system.

y'all understand why they want conservative christians to have a ton of babies, right? the only reason that american conservatives have become as atrocious as they are is that they have the big, dumb numbers. they need another generation of idiots - forcefully uneducated - to continue their legacy of shit.

Japan has an aging population and tried a lot, with not much success...

Prosperity = less kids, so we shouldn't be surprised what Trump is going to try...

Do we get to choose how it’s distributed? Here are some fun options I came up with.

1. $13.69 per day for a year. (Nice). About $419/month. Maybe they could round up to $420 because they stale internet meme culture is hip

2. $0.76 per day for 18 years. A guaranteed $22.80 per month for an entire childhood

3. $5000 lump sum. I can’t find any widely accepted figures for average out of pocket cost of prenatal care, child birth, and infant health visits. I’ll wild ass guess it a at covering 20-75% of those visits for people who have insurance. For people without insurance, looks like an uncomplicated vaginal birth averages $14k. But again huge variations in price

40k a year? So at least 3200 a month for daycare? Who on gods dying earth can pay for that? That's more than 3 times my rent and my landlord is bleeding me like a stuck pig, what the fuck

May barely cover the hospital bill for those many without health insurance. But of course the proposed bonus is intended for middle class white babies

In Germany the parents (and later, the children themselves) receive a little over 250€ per month until the child is 25 or finished an apprenticeship or uni.

Germany has a very low birth rate.

Edit: copy of a text where I laid out the benefits we get in a similar discussion:

In Germany we have protection of pregnant people from when their doctor deems them unfit for work until delivery – continued payment of full wages. Two months after delivery with 70% wages and 12 months to split between both parents, which can be taken together and stretched by taking half the money for twice as long. Until your child is six you may (with some exceptions) take unpaid leave for parenting. Your employer has to keep your position for you. Childcare from 1 till school is affordable (ca. 250€/M). Healthcare is paid as a percentage from your income (ca. 15%) and has very little extra cost. You get 250€ per child per month just for having a child. Tax credits. If you are still struggling: Assistance for rent, school materials, clothing and more.

We have (compared to the US) pretty solid workers protection laws. We have a (not great but you won't starve) state pension. We have unemployment benefits, that don't run out (conditions apply). We don't have the weird Japanese shut-in young men on a scale that's worth a mention.

We also have one of the lowest birth rates in the world.

Yes, the oppressiveness of a capitalist society is a factor – Germany is far from free of that, and getting worse. But compared to the US we should be popping out babies like crazy. But it's emancipation of women and it's education, that afaik are the most decisive influences of a low birth rate.

That tracks. I'm paying about $15k for pre-k/daycare throughout the year, which really only covers about 7-8mo, then there's camps, babysitters, etc. I easily spend $25k on each kid and I'm not in New York or somewhere.

Like I’d take it if I’m planning on having a baby anyways. But yeah, it’s an absolutely pathetic amount. And childcare is only going to get more expensive with this fucking administration

"I mean it's one child, Michael. How much could it cost? Five thousand dollars?"

Remember all the garbage about welfare queens? I thought this was something that was morally wrong in the 90s to support people who have kids?

He is rich and has no reference for the price of everyday items

40k/year sounds premium. But what little do I know, I am German and pay about 3k/year for a very nice Kindergarten.

Giving everyone 5k would more meaningfully improve birth rates than asking educated young people worried about their future childrens' standard of living to take a leap for the cost of one small medical emergency.

I wonder how much woke stuff we can get for the purpose of making babies.

Mandated paid maternity leave?

Child tax credit?

Maybe some universal medical coverage for the mothers and children?

In my country the government decided to give hundreds of euro each month for 6 years to who have a baby (my friend gets €400/month) but SURPRISE! Birth rate didn't increase

Lmao anyone who thinks this is a lot of money has clearly never raised a child in the recent past. (Let's say 10-15 years? idk)

$5k is gone, like that

Just use all that stimulus money we got! When was that? Like 2 or 3 times... 5 years ago... Uh. The poor! They're stealing all your money!