Berlusconi to resign after parliament OKs reforms

[Viking]

So...interesting developments...a technocracy....has such a thing ever been done?

Franco's Spain was run by technocrats after the autarky pursued by earlier fascist governments proved disastrous.

But then again Pinochet invited Milton Friedman down to Santiago and that turned out better than expected.

[Barrister]

Now, having got that out of the way, "financial incentives" to have children are counterproductive because they largely don't work or work only for exactly the type of people you do not want to have kids (like the poor and irresponsible ones).

I think you're mistaken on this.  Financial incentives can be very effective at helping to increase fertility - because having children is enormously expensive, not only in the direct costs (food, clothing, childcare) but in terms of lost income opportunities.  I think however that was has been shown is that financial incentives have to be quite substantial in order to be effective.

Also - the children of the poor and irresponsible often grow up to be middle class and responsible.

[Josquius]

I think you're mistaken on this.  Financial incentives can be very effective at helping to increase fertility - because having children is enormously expensive, not only in the direct costs (food, clothing, childcare) but in terms of lost income opportunities.  I think however that was has been shown is that financial incentives have to be quite substantial in order to be effective.

Also - the children of the poor and irresponsible often grow up to be middle class and responsible.

Some do, there are always the lucky ones who break out of the cycle of breeding and unemployment. The majority however do not.

But yes, the government can really help with getting people to have kids. Sweden IIRC has a much higher birth rate than most due to all the perks like paternity leave, great daycare, etc...
These aren't strictly financial however....the trouble with financial incentives is that a lot of the non-working class do go for them. Many a time you hear of teenage charvas speaking of wanting to have a kid so they can have a free hundred quid a month from the government (or however much it is), to middle class people such an amount of money is nothing. Even to my working class parents it was just a bit of handy extra help, not really anything worth having a kid for- to the poor and stupid though....

So...interesting developments...a technocracy....has such a thing ever been done?

It's how Berlusconi's first time as PM ended

Ouch

[Jacob]

Many a time you hear of teenage charvas speaking of wanting to have a kid so they can have a free hundred quid a month from the government (or however much it is)

This is something you personally often hear, or just the kind of thing you've heard repeated enough that you assume it must be true?

[Josquius]

Many a time you hear of teenage charvas speaking of wanting to have a kid so they can have a free hundred quid a month from the government (or however much it is)

This is something you personally often hear, or just the kind of thing you've heard repeated enough that you assume it must be true?

These days I tend not to hear it so often, but when I was at school yes, I did hear it a number of times. And parents and other folk who I trust mention hearing some girls saying that kind of thing too.