I was in Bar.nes and N.ob.le yesterday when a magazine cover caught me off guard. It wasn’t one of those guilty pleasure gossip mags, but the Ec.onomi.st. Scratching your head yet? The headline was this:
Check out the article here.
The short version: Infertility has great benefits economically.
A snippet:
“Slowing fertility has other benefits. By making it easier for women to work, it boosts the size of the labour force. Because there are fewer dependent children and old people, households have more money left for savings, which can be ploughed into investment. Chinese household savings (obviously influenced by many things, not just demography) reached almost 25% of GDP in 2008, helping to finance investment of an unprecedented 40% of GDP. This in turn accounted for practically all the increase in Chinese GDP in the first half of this year.”
That’s just lovely. However, I would rather have less money to plunk into investments. I want my investments to come in the forms of hugs and kisses. I understand that’s not what your magazine is all about. I just feel the need to point out that there is more to life than dollar signs. Not to mention, not every woman wants to work. Some choose to stay home. Having children isn’t chaining me to my home. I could still go forth and be a part of the work force. There are plenty of wonderful day cares I could send my children to, just out of person preference I don’t.
Regardless, it was an unemotional look at how fertility rates are effecting global population.
4 responses so far ↓
Flicka // November 2, 2009 at 7:46 am |
Well if that’s the case then why are we in a recession?
electriclady // November 2, 2009 at 9:19 am |
The cover took me off guard too, but technically the piece wasn’t about fertility as defined as the ability to get pregnant–it was about birth rates. They didn’t mean that women being infertile is good. They meant that women being able to have some choice in when and how many children to have is good–that it’s a good sign for the economy when people are able to choose to have 2 children as opposed to feeling like they have to have 6 or 7 children to contribute to the family’s well-being.
My Reality // November 4, 2009 at 5:11 pm |
Infertility hasn’t helped us financially. . .
beagle // November 5, 2009 at 11:44 am |
It may be helpful to the global economy but not to any individual household budget that’s been there done that!
Interesting take on a topic near and dear to all of us though . . .