Are Babies a “Drag” on the Economy?

by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., August 14, 2008

The message of Scripture is clear: Children are a blessing, and the fruit of the womb is the reward of God.

But we live in a time in history in which too many who profess to be Christians agree with the World: Children are a burden, and those who praise the fruit of the womb must be ridiculed, berated, and even silenced. The vitriol, hatred, and mockery on the Internet that is communicated from the Press, radical leftists, homosexual advocacy groups, and even mean-spirited feminists who profess to be Christians, against precious and prolific families like the Duggars (as well as against diverse ministries which extol the blessings of fruit of the womb), has reached an all time high.

What is behind this behavior? I am sure different things motivate different types of individuals toward infantile viciousness: political agenda, contempt for God’s Word, selfishness, self-justification. I really don’t know, and I am not sure that it really matters.

On the other hand, there is a large body of individuals who would not dream of such contemptible behavior, but who nonetheless embrace anti-life arguments that find their modern origin in the feminism-think of organizations like Planned Parenthood. One such argument is that having babies hurts the economy because it limits women from expressing their independence and liberation from the home by serving in the workforce. Now a report out of Australia emphasizes this philosophy and declares that babies are a “drag” on the economy because it takes women out of the work force:

FORGET those plans to have a third child for the country because further increases in the birth rate could harm the economy, the nation’s productivity watchdog has warned.

A major analysis of the nation’s increasing fertility rate said it was at its highest level for 25 years - but the Productivity Commission yesterday warned further increases may aggravate rather than solve the problem of the ageing of the population.

This is because it will shift women out of the workforce while they care for babies, depressing labour supply and reducing the taxation base as our population ages, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The small number of extra babies born would make little difference to the rate of population ageing, the commission said.

And the women having the babies would be exacerbating the financial impacts on the government of the ageing of the population because the tax breaks offered to parents to have children occur up front, while the cost savings of a bigger working population and bigger tax base from extra children are deferred until they are of working age.

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