Money doesn't buy happiness
The topic of demography in Russia is still problematic, acute and widely discussed in society. This is despite the fact that we have really strong family values, and the vast majority of families — regardless of income — strive to give birth and raise children.
This logic has only two problems. One of them is ethical, the other is quite pragmatic. The approach “if she ever gives birth herself, there is no need to help” in principle rejects the concept of a welfare state. In this case, most social institutions and state support measures lose their significance. However, there are also pragmatic objections. About 76 percent of Russian families dream of having two or more children. But they really have exactly two or more children — only 32.6 percent. But 67.4 percent of families with children in the country are one-child.
Birth rate monitoring shows that a third of women under the age of 35 postpone the birth of their first child due to lack of housing, that is, hypothetically, if all young nulliparous women have comfortable housing of their own, the likelihood of childbearing increases markedly. In our country, the total fertility rate among women who have given birth to their first children — the very ones who seem to be born under any conditions — has been declining since 2012. It was — 0.81 in 2012, and became — 0.64 in 2019. Decrease by 20 percent.
The first child appears in the family when his mother is already an average of 26 years old. Not infrequently, this joyful event in the family occurs at 29, and at 30, and at 35 years old. And there are more and more such examples. Is it worth counting in this case that such a family will have many children? At the same time, it is natural that the higher the age of the birth of the first child, the less likely the birth of subsequent children, which is due to the physiological laws of the aging of the body of women. Therefore, doctors recommend not waiting for all the necessary material and housing conditions to make a decision on the birth of the first child, since at a later age a woman's reproductive function worsens and risks to the health of babies increase. It is advisable to help potential mothers at an earlier age when they need very little — for example, the first mortgage payment.
After the introduction of maternity capital for the first child, the decline in the birth rate began to slow down. Perhaps because it became possible to improve living conditions due to the fact that maternity capital for the first child allows you to make a down payment on mortgage lending to purchase an apartment in most regions of the country. At the birth of a second child, the capital is small, but with a preferential mortgage, the monthly payment can be significantly reduced. At the birth of a third child — another contribution to the expansion of the cherished meters — 450 thousand rubles to pay off a mortgage loan. In 72 subjects, additional regional maternity capital has already been introduced, which also helps the family in solving the housing issue.
The logic of the state is clear: not to remove responsibility for their own future and the future of their children from their parents, but to help them at every stage. It is to help, but with the division of responsibility. By helping, the state consistently expands the family's range of opportunities to increase their own well-being. Only within the framework of the national project «Demography» from 2019 to 2022, 1,600 kindergartens for 233,000 places were opened. Today, the issue of providing places in kindergartens for children from 3 to 7 years old has been completely closed, the availability of nursery groups has significantly increased. And the creation of additional places continues.
The state, stimulating the birth of second and third children in families, should provide the necessary conditions for increasing the birth rate, while concentrating on the development of social infrastructure and the availability of its services to ensure the development and upbringing of children, and the performance of parental functions of spouses. Achieving this goal takes on a real shape when conditions are created under which women have the opportunity to combine family responsibilities with professional self-realization, career development, and just in a short time, if they want to start working again. Here, other needs come to the fore: the ability to combine family responsibilities with continued career growth, professional fulfillment, including the ability to quickly return to work. And for this, too, opportunities are being created — from regulating issues of remote employment to free training programs for women on leave with a child.
Proposals to solve the problem of the demographic decline exclusively with money and direct payments are quite simple, but not substantiated, since such a pattern as a decrease in the need for children, even with high incomes, is well known. Thus, only material well-being and high income do not allow solving the issue of low birth rate. Offers to give 4.5 trillion. rubles for children's «unconditional basic income» — a direct injection of all these funds written off from state accounts can stimulate inflationary processes, which will affect socially vulnerable groups of the population. The introduction of such a basic payment for each child will contribute to the release of several hundred thousand workers from the economy, and those who have not received a profession and work experience. It can also lead to an increase in dependence on benefits, dependency among disadvantaged families with no other sources of income, an increase in the number of immigrants from Asian countries. Moreover, the “unconditional basic income for children”, unlike the same unified allowance that was introduced on January 1, 2023, does not encourage the employment of parents and their participation in the life of the child.
Therefore, when we hear another proposal to decide demographic problems exclusively with money, it should be understood that in the horizon of several years social dependency may increase, lumpenization of some young people with a low level of education, and birth rate growth can be achieved mainly in socially disadvantaged families,
Overcoming the demographic crisis does not not only an increase in the birth rate, but also a decrease in the death rate, an increase in life expectancy. These results are possible with the implementation of an integrated approach in the implementation of state policy to improve the system of education, healthcare, increase effective employment of the population, create favorable conditions for small business, self-employment, legal protection of business, i.e. it is necessary to develop those spheres of life that create conditions for the growth of the quality of life, social stability, and the improvement of social well-being.