What will encourage NZers to have more babies?
New population data has confirmed that New Zealand will need to rely more on migration to offset an ageing population in the coming decades.
Stats NZ said on Tuesday that the estimated population of New Zealand was 5.3 million as at 30 June. The median age of women was 39 and men 37.4. In the year, the population grew by 0.7 percent.
The total fertility rate was 1.57 births per woman, marginally up from 1.55 a year earlier. The rate has been below the replacement rate of 2.1 since 2013.
Treasury earlier warned that could cause problems as the cost of an ageing population would be covered by a smaller number of working taxpayers.
In the 1970s, there were about seven people aged 15 to 64 for everyone aged 65 and over. Today there are four and in 50 years there will be about two.
Infometrics lead demographer Nick Brunsdon said it was a situation that had been “in the mail” since the 1960s.
“If the average level of migration is 30,000 a year over the next from now to eternity our population is still likely to start declining in probably the 2050s.
“Migration is the only thing that can save us but it won’t entirely save us over the long term.
At the centre of the Gender Pay Gap is the biological reality women carry the babies. If we as a liberal progressive society want to ensure everyone has equal agency, then surely recognising biological reality is a starting point?
Woke Identitarians refuse to accept biology is a determinant because they see being chained to any biological reality sets their movement back, so the focus is on you-go-girl-feminism-boss-babes-in-the-Boardroom (hashtag) because middle class educated women deserve more while making it an altruistic virtue signal!
By constantly pushing for bigger bonuses at the Boardroom level, this brand of gender equality is weighted towards those women who already have more but want what the boys get too.
Charming.
Women are struggling to remain in top jobs in some of New Zealand’s biggest companies and those firms are battling to retain them due to motherhood, a new studyreleased on Thursday shows.
The study called for businesses to achieve gender balance at senior levels by developing a better understanding of motherhood.
Instead of the ideology why not focus on the biology?
You want to lift the birth rate, do something meaningful about the cost!
This is the legacy of user pays education that has forced women to push back having a baby to pay off their student loan!
This is the legacy of de-unionising NZ, this is the legacy of stripping out public services.
This is the legacy of our collective poverty and shifting values to free market survival of the wealthiest.
The first 12months should be maternity leave – or paternity leave, either one, but one of the parents should be paid to stay home with the infant for its first year of life. Who else do you want to look after an infant other than the parent?
Meanwhile, ECE should be nationalised and made completely free for 2 year olds to 5 year olds while all after school care should be free.
Childcare costs fall unevenly and unfairly on women, so why not eliminate those costs altogether?
Playing the Gender Pay Gap Game even when implemented, doesn’t lead to the outcomes desired.
If women having babies is stunting their pay careers, then subside the cost of having that kid with 12months maternity/paternity leave, Nationalise ECE and free after school care.
Also implement a 4 day working week for all state employees so that people’s quality of life is lifted rather than just wage growth.
The promise of Democracy is you can look in your kids face and know they will have a netter deal of it than you.
Allowing a parent to stay home with their kid for a year, provide free early education care and free after school care would do more to live up to that promise than anything else.
All we need to do to fund this type of universal upgrade of the social infrastructure is tax the rich!
Nationals 3 biggest donors (Hart, Mowbray and Bolton) have a combined net worth of 15 billion!
The Bottom 50% of NZ has 23 billion.
The top 5% of NZers own roughly 50% of NZs wealth, while the bottom 50% of NZers own a miserable 5%!
IRD proved NZ Capitalism is rigged for the rich and Bernard Hickey calculates that if we had a basic capital gains tax in place over the last decade, we would have earned $200billion in tax revenue.
$200billion would have ensured our public infrastructure wouldn’t be in such an underfunded ruin right now!
You want to lift our population?
Dump the woke hate for biology, dump the punitive punishment of the right and push for Universal Left instead!
Subsidise the cost of raising the kids so parents can have the agency of re-entering the workforce without the enormous cost of day care!
Reset the Working For Families rules, dump the relationship rules and write off beneficiary debt alongside a 50 000 state home build plan that boosts the state housing stock to a level that robs the landlords of the desperation they use to manipulate rents!
600 000 needing food banks each month is a political choice.
$3.5b in beneficiary debt is a political choice.
20 000 on the state housing wait list is a political choice.
Hundreds of thousands of NZ children in poverty is a political choice.
Remember this Government are taking $2300 away from the disabled each year and pushing 13000 kids into poverty so they can fund a tax cut for their rich landlord mates!
This is all a political calculation and every Kiwi should be ashamed of it.
No wonder our child birth rate is plummeting!
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“How does New Zealand lift its birth rate?” By rolling back Feminism, obviously.
The ironic part is that it is the most hardcore Feminists who don’t realise that their core beliefs are the cause of their personal misery.
When women are out there living the delusion of trying to by a “girl boss” throughout their most fertile years instead of having large families (having been told the former is the key to happiness, not the latter), and putting off getting married until no sane man would marry them, then of course we’re going to have low birth rate. Only once these women have “hit the wall” so to speak and realise they’ve spent 10 or 15 years having casual sex and trying to get promoted (oftentimes the same thing), do they start to appreciate the most important things a women can have, which is a good husband and three or four kids.
“… putting off getting married until no sane man would marry them, then of course we’re going to have low birth rate”.
Mmn … when I last looked it takes two. While there may be a good few deluded “girl bosses” out there and a fair sprinkling of princesses still waiting for Mr Right, there’s just as many male arseholes. Good husbands are hard to find, are they not?
“….there’s just as many male arseholes. Good husbands are hard to find, are they not?”
A lot of men accept Feminist principles as much women do. You could say that they need a wake up call as well. We need to bring real men and real women back
Thanks Martyn, great points. I also believe it can be simpler than that. NZ just needs to provide a safe, fair, living environment where everyone has a “chance” to succeed to the best of their ability. A country designed to do all it can to help its people help themselves. If you are lazy it won’t matter how great NZ is, you will need to adapt and pull your weight. So no more “HAVES” and “HAVE-NOTS”. It’s called sharing the load. We are not all given the same opportunity so those who have an easier road can give more. Happy people = a progressive country! Lots going on out there fuelled by poverty, frustrations, unfairness, bias and yes racism. Under this CoC everything has gone backwards including the moral compass of so many who should know better. One would have to be mad to have a child in NZ under this greedy, toxic mob, who don’t give a damn about the necessities in life – its all about money, money, money. HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?
Birth rates falling in many countries – US, Canada and just so its not a Eurocentric thing, also in Japan. On the face of it the cost of raising children is at the crux of it – puts the $10 block of butter in perspective! But not only that but the cost of housing in relation to earning power and the precarity of work – although it could be said that’ the cost’ encompasses all. Ok if you’re a professional, a man who can support a one income family for the first years, or a woman who has the security of that option before relaunching a professional career or finding a cushy number somewhere.
But it’s pretty clear from overseas that social change is at the front. Not only the economics but priorities. Some young couples just don’t want kids – at least not while the going’s tough – and before they know it the horse has bolted, if not, just time for a precious only child. Yes, some women would rather focus on their careers – kids do get in the way. But for women who are not in the PM class – and there must be many of these – pursuing a career a not a big factor. One kid is manageable – certainly not there or four!
And then for some who leave it all a bit late – maybe they’re off on their OE enjoying the hedonistic lifestyle, or simply widening their life experience, and finding a suitable mate is not always straightforward in your late 30s. There are a lot of arseholes out there I’m told – guys who for good reason are not in a relationship – indeed a lot of women who have enough baggage for a world trip. The online dating world is testament to this. Not dissing it but its a bit like roulette. Compatibility aside compromise and forgiving each other’s faults is an art.
Then there the demographic thing. Who are not having babies and are who are?
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