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Watch the video Odd Baby Incentives:
Countries are giving couple incentives to have babies on Yahoo OMG!.
How did you spend August 9th
of this year? Well, if you live in Singapore, the government is hoping
you spent the day celebrating the anniversary of your independence from
Malaysia…and then spent the night getting knocked up. That’s because
birth rates in Singapore have fallen to an all-time low. It’s currently
at around 1.2 children per woman, well below the 2.1 children per woman
rate necessary to maintain current population numbers. So last year,
breath mint company Mentos launched an ad campaign in Singapore that
encouraged everyone to do their civic duty by making a baby on August 9th
– with the aid of fresh breath from Mentos, of course. Many countries,
in fact, are incentivizing their citizens to make little baby citizens.
Russia, which has seen a steady population decline since the early
1990s, began a program in which moms who give birth on June 12
– the country’s National Day holiday -- are entered into a drawing to
win money and prizes from the government, including refrigerators and
SUVs. And Germany hopes that building new, state-of-the-art nursery
schools will tempt people into parenthood. Incentives like this have
actually been around for centuries. In Ancient Rome, Caesar Augustus
became so concerned about dwindling population numbers that he passed a
legislation rewarding big families with more political clout. The reason
ancient and modern governments worry about population decline is that
it creates severe economic problems. There are fewer young workers
paying taxes and buying goods. So for the foreseeable future, you can
forget about Valentine’s Day if you live in Singapore – August 9th is new day for romance.
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