People who never have a child can still collect the taxes paid by other people’s children. Ditto for people whose children are all losers, spend a lifetime “finding themselves” and never hold a job. The Social Security of the 1930's took for granted women’s contribution of raising productive adult children. The result is fewer children: economists Isaac Ehrlich and Jian-Guo Zhong found that countries with generous social security systems have lower fertility rates, marriage rates and higher divorce rates.
The most needed reform is that benefits should be based on both kinds of contributions, not just financial contributions. Phillip Longman is one of the few commentators to address the fertility problem of Social Security reform. In The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to do about it, he proposes to link a couple’s benefits not only to the income of the primary earning, but to the number of children they raise.
Today, it is considered politically incorrect to mention the obvious contribution of motherhood. Feminism taught us to believe that motherhood is for ninnies, and that no self-respecting educated woman should be caught dead changing diapers. Public policies to encourage women to have more children are considered unacceptable infringements on women’s freedom.
Feminism also taught men to keep their mouths shut about women’s choices. Men have no opinions that women are bound to respect. Once a woman chooses something, all men are required to bow down three times in adoration of the goddess of Self-Determination.
Well, I am one woman who is ready to say that raising children is a good and socially constructive thing to do. Having more than one or two children can be a lot of fun. And it is for certain that raising a large family to productive adulthood will use all the gifts of even the most gifted woman. Having a family is a worthy life endeavor, deserving the educated woman’s most serious consideration.
The Social Security system should recognize this fact, and link benefits to child-rearing. When Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson gets specific about Social Security reform, I encourage him to consider fertility “on the table.”
I’ll stick up for him when the screaming starts.