>OK, I'm back in Moscow from sunny, San Diego-esque
>Rostov-on-Don -- which now has three sushi bars within
>a one-block radius downtown! Wow.
>
>Anyway, I was wondering about something. As part of
>its attempt to improve the demographic situation, the
>Russian government recently adopted a policy whereby a
>woman who has a second child gets 250,000 rubles
>(about $9600) worth of child care and other such
>child-oriented services when the child turns three
>years old. (Said development AFAIK mysteriously
>unreported in Anglophone media.)
>
>I have been scratching my heads wondering why they
>stuck the "three years old" crierion in there. It
>can't be to encourage people not to have children and
>dump them on the state for money, as childcare
>services aren't very useful to your average alcoholic
>deadbeat. Anybody have any ideas? Do any other
>countries do this kind of thing? Thanks.
Yeah, Australia does that kind of thing. Only the Australian governments pays the baby bonus to the mother in cash. I've forgotten how much it is exactly, they've increased it dramatically recently. Might be $5,000 AU. That's for every baby though, not just 2nd and subsequent babies. Child care and other subsidies and welfare payments are there as well, but the baby bonus is a big one.
There were even reports of expectant mums doing everything they could to stall the birth of their baby, until after the higher rate was scheduled to come into operation. But these were reports in the tabl;oind media, so I take them with a pinch of salt.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas