The family is the driving force behind economic recovery and the basic unit to a civil society; and yet today we see a growing movement to take away the value of the family and child-bearing. We are seeing programs available in many parts of the world claiming to be representative of the family but are just a means of controlling fertility rates.
Recently attention has been drawn to one part of the world in which “family planning” programs have had a devastating effect on the economy. LifeSiteNews reported that Quebec’s family programs are “unsustainable and problematic due to the province’s snowballing debt and low fertility rates.” This welfare state has reason to be concerned considering it has an alarmingly low fertility rate at 1.74 as of 2008 which is below the 2.1 replacement level. If this pattern continues Quebec will experience fiscal woes.
The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada’s (IMFC) manager of Research and Communications; Andrea Mrozek said, “As a province they are not alone in having a fairly robust set of social programs and low fertility which means you are lacking the tax payers to pay for said social programs.”
Quebec’s government is trying to restore a “strong marriage culture” because they are currently experiencing high abortion rates leaving their fertility rates at an all-time low. Government programs would be forced to close down due to instability of family life. These low fertility rates have an effect on everyone because government programs could be forced to close down as well as other negative economic implications.
It has been widely reported that Europe is not maintaining its population through births, and that fertility has declined. If Europe is any indicator of economic ruin, then Quebec has reason to worry. A basic principle on economics is that it needs consumers to thrive, but with a low fertility rate that leads to a decline in population an economy is very difficult to maintain. Italy has had rates of 1.3 and under for a decade and Italy’s economy is currently near collapse. Mrozek says it best when she says, “They do need to recover a model of family that we identify as being the strongest way to raise children which is by their own married parents.” A revival of the family has the potential of turning around many of these countries that are experiencing economic difficulties as well as restore civil society.
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