Australian Economists Warning: Too Many Babies Being Born

Australia seemed to be getting over the fear of children that so affected the Western world in the last few decades. Over 285,000 births were registered last year in the country, the highest level in 25 years. Much of that came from older moms deciding that they wanted to have babies after all -- the joys of the workplace turning out to be a bit less satisfactory than previously thought.

But ideologies die hard. Even when the facts are against them. And so, natural instincts and "biological clocks" aside, the bureaucrats of Australia's "Productivity Commission," seemingly clinging to the bizarre and monumentally discredited theories of Thomas Malthus (and later, Paul Erlich), are trying to put a stop to this "having babies" thing.

Their game? Juggle the figures, ignore the long term consequences, and appeal to the citizenry's immediate selfishness -- anything to keep us from having to share our toys with those new kids.

Here's the opening of the Daily Telegraph story:

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...