The German Niceness Subsidy

The German government showers money and benefits on people who have children.  They're allowed to take a"child-raising vacation" from work (i.e. to reduce their work-week to between 15 and 30 hours, if they choose), they get a per-child bonus called "child-money," and starting in 2007 there will be a new kind of "parent-money." 

As the Rheinische Post reports, this will replace 67% of one parent's income for a full year after a baby is born -- up to €1800 a month, which is extremely generous.  The previous "parent money" payments were much smaller.There's a catch, though.  To get the full year of parent money, the father has to be the one staying at home for at least two of the months.  That is, if only Mommy takes a "child vacation", she only gets 10 months salary replacement.  If the family wants the extra two months, the father has to take a 2-month (or more) child-vacation from work.   Some conservatives, and the Catholic Church,  are crying foul.  They say this new scheme intrudes too far into the family's constitutionally-protected ability to run its affairs, and will force a disorienting change in the baby's primary "contact person."  Others applaud the step.

One justification for this policy is increasing Germany's birth rate, which is one of the lowest in the world.  Under this theory, if the government removes much of the economic burden of child-bearing from parents' shoulders, people will have more children.  Small-l liberals point out that Germany already provides large transfer payments to parents just for having a child.  If throwing this money at this problem were going to solve it, we would probably have already seen some effects from the policy.  After all, having children is supposed to be a wonder and a joy in itself.  Having the government pay you to do what comes naturally somehow cheapens it -- and besides, we all know that the birthrate is determined much more directly by religiosity and optimism, both of which are in short supply in Germany.

But what if the deeper rationale is just the desire to improve the quality of family life in Germany by relieving parents' financial stress?  "Sure, it may cost a lot of money, and it probably won't increase in the birth rate.  But it will enable more parents to spend more quality time with their kids, and that's enough of a benefit in itself."  Under this theory, Germany is investing healthy, well-adjusted future Germans.  They're going to get to spend a lot more time with their parents in the critical first years of their life, and that's good for all of us.  They'll have a healthy bond with their parents, they'll learn faster, they'll be better behaved.  That's worth a couple billion, don't you think?

Hmm, why not?  Individual Germans (not drunken tour groups) are world-renowned for their good manners, and perhaps family policies like this are one reason.  When the government makes it easy for people of all income groups to spend lots of time with their kids, those kids turn out nicer.

Governments that don't do this seem to be getting different results.  Take, for example, a recent New York Times article about how rude and self-centered American children are becoming.  After noting increasing evidence that American children are turning into regular little buggers, the article and various experts observe:

Most parents, [Harvard University child psychiatrist Dan] Kindlon said, would like their children to be polite, considerate and well behaved. But they're too tired, worn down by work and personally needy to take up the task of teaching them proper behavior at home.

***

Parenting today is also largely about training children to compete - in school and on the soccer field - and the kinds of attributes they need to be competitive are precisely those that help break down society's civility.

Parents who want their children to succeed more than anything, Dr. Kindlon said, teach them to value and prioritize achievement above all else - including other people.

***

If stress and strain, self-centeredness and competition are the pathogens underlying the rash of rudeness perceived to be endemic among children in America today, then the cure, some experts said, has to be systemic and not topical. Stop blaming the children, they said. Stop focusing on the surface level of behavior and start curing instead the social, educational and parental ills that feed it.

Man, that's an ugly picture, isn't it?  It's not the whole truth, of course, but there's more than a kernel of truth to it.  As for me, I'm staying for the time being in Germany, where your tax dollars pay to make future generations, well, nice.

Comments

[gw]

is anyone familiar with the process necessary for a company to obtain German subsidies? if so, please email me at gbwells@gmail.com

[Cheap hotels Frankfurt Germany]

Interesting article. I know the do the same in Austria and probably more countries in Europe.

[boy spanking]

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[Rich]

I think the government is doing a good thing to promote families. When the family goes so goes society. I think some people confuse procreation with recreation. "Holiday" is nice but there is more to life than that in my humble opinion. Many Germans love their history, culture, and their identity but many also do not realize in order to maintain that, you have to have people. The more they don't have, the more immigrants they'll have to bring in which will cause other social problems in most cases and little by little, they'll lose that same history, culture, and identity of who they are. I've been there and have family there. The "lights will go out" literally if this type of self-centered, me, me, me behavior continues.

[Torsten]

In my opinion the government is misplacing the money: We get it to rise our birth rate - but what comes next? This money should better be spend on child care (do Germany have the lowest "mothers-at-work-rate"?) and our educational system. (Example: My son's school is begging for computer hardware in order to carry out nearly state-of-the-art information technology classes. Hello, McFly? *knock* *knock*) I promise that in the next PISA ranking Germany will be on position 137 - way beyond the termite hills in the Kalahari desert (I think termites have a better social competence concerning their children than our government have). Is this the incentive to give birth to a child in Germany?

asks
Torsten

[Matt]

"Individual Germans (not drunken tour groups) are world-renowned for their good manners."

Actually, we are not. We count as reliable, dependable, organized, and efficient. But also as blunt, overly direct, impolite, and much too serious about everything.

The idea that the government should be responsible for well-behaving kids is very German, though...